Japan’s birth rate — the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime — hit a new record low of 1.20 in 2023, health ministry data showed Wednesday.
The latest figure is 0.06 point down from the previous year in 2022 and the lowest since the government started keeping records in 1947, underlining the rapid pace at which its society is graying.
The birth rate, or total fertility rate, has been in decline for decades. The figure stood at 1.76 in 1985, then fell to 1.45 in 2015 and 1.33 in 2020 as more women choose to marry and start a family later in life.