Census points to record drop in population in Japan in the last five years

Japan has seen a record drop in population, with 3 million fewer people - the biggest decline in the country's history in the last five years. The information was confirmed based on data from the Asian country's most recent census.

According to information from NHK, the survey in the country has been carried out every five years since 1920.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs released the preliminary results of the 2025 national census this Friday (29).

The most recent survey indicates that the population was 123,049,524 inhabitants on October 1st of last year. The number fell by 3,096,575 compared to the previous census, in 2020. This represents a drop of 2.5%.

The result also shows that this is the third consecutive reduction since 2015, the year in which the movement was noticed for the first time.

The number of residents increased in two of the country's 47 provinces. Tokyo recorded an increase of 199,000 people and Okinawa, 1,000. However, the pace of growth slowed down in both.

The other 45 provinces registered a population reduction. Hokkaido saw the biggest drop, with 239,000 fewer people. Shizuoka and Hyogo followed, with drops of 164,000 and 141,000, respectively.

The number of households was 57,124,507, an increase of about 1.294 million from the previous census, reaching the highest level since comparable data became available in 1970. However, the number of people per household fell from 2.26 to 2.15.

The Ministry of Home Affairs suggests that an increasing number of elderly people are living in single-resident homes.

Final data should be released by September.

Source: CNN