Just One in Nine Japanese Under the Age of 15: Child Population Continues to Fall

Japan’s estimated population of children under the age of 15 was 13.7 million as of April 1, 2025, according to annual data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, released on the May 5 Children’s Day holiday. This was 350,000 fewer than the previous year and marked the forty-fourth straight year since 1982 that the number has fallen. It is also the lowest on record since comparable statistics were first compiled in 1950. There were 7.0 million boys and 6.7 million girls.

Children under 15 represent 11.1% of the total population, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous year, in the fifty-first consecutive annual decline since 1975. Meanwhile, the population of those 65 or older numbers 36.2 million or 29.3% of the overall population. At around 2.7 times greater than the number of children, it demonstrates a clear demographic imbalance.

By prefecture, Okinawa had the highest percentage of children at 15.8%, followed by Shiga and Saga, both at 12.7%. The lowest percentage was in Akita (8.8%), with Aomori (9.8%) and Hokkaidō (9.9%) filling out the bottom three. As a general tendency, percentages were higher in the west and lower in the east of the country.

According to the United Nations Demographic Yearbook, Japan has the second lowest percentage of children among the 37 countries in the world whose populations are 40 million or greater. South Korea has the lowest percentage with 10.6%, followed by Japan (11.1%), Italy (11.9%), and Spain (12.9%).

By three-year age groups, children aged 12 to 14 were the most numerous, at 3.1 million, followed by 3.0 million for 9- to 11-year-olds, 2.8 million for 6- to 8-year-olds, 2.5 million for 3- to 5-year-olds, and 2.2 million for newborns to 2-year-olds.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)