Japan is the poster child for the aging population syndrome and things don’t seem to be getting better for the world’s third largest economy. The fertility rate, or average number of children born to a woman in her lifetime, was 1.2565 last year and that marks a new record low.
The previous low of 1.2601 was set in 2005 and is far below the rate of 2.07, which is typically considered necessary to maintain a stable population. In other words, this just emphasises the sense of crisis that is impacting the country as the population continues to shrink and age rapidly.
The Covid-19 pandemic has also only served to exacerbate the situation in Japan, with fewer marriages (and in turn fewer births) in the last few years while the virus itself was partially responsible for more deaths.