Japan’s population is expected to shrink by roughly 30% from the level in 2015 to 88.08 million by 2065, with…
TOKYO —
Japan’s population is expected to shrink by roughly 30% from the level in 2015 to 88.08 million by 2065, with a continuing increase in the proportion of older people, according to a government estimate released Monday.
Although the latest estimate showed a slower pace of population decline than the previous projection in 2012, the data indicated a grim outlook for the government’s goal, set in 2014, of maintaining the country’s population at 100 million after 50 years.
The projected fertility rate, the expected number of children born per woman during her child-bearing years, was revised upward slightly to 1.44 in 2065 from the 2012 estimate of 1.35 in 2060, according to the health ministry’s research body, the National Institute of Population and Security Research.
The institute, which provides 50-year demographic forecasts approximately every five years, said Japan’s population is projected to slip below 100 million in 2053, compared with 2048 in the previous estimate.
