Japan’s Births Fall to 705.8K Amid Relentless 60-Year Decline

Japan recorded just 705,809 births in 2025, the lowest since 1899 and the tenth consecutive annual decline.

Today’s visualization shows a six-decade chart that reveals the relentless collapse of Japanese fertility from a 1970s peak of approximately 19 births per 1,000 people to 2023’s 6 per 1,000.

The preliminary health ministry data showed births down 2.1% from 2024, and when contextualized against Japan’s 124 million population, the 705,809 figure translates to roughly 5.7 births per 1,000.

• Japan recorded 705,809 births in 2025, the lowest annual total since record-keeping began in 1899.
• The national birth rate has fallen from roughly 19 per 1,000 people in the early 1970s to about 5.7 per 1,000 in 2025.
• The sharpest single-year drop occurred in 1966 during the Fire Horse year, when superstition led many couples to delay childbirth.