Japan's population is declining due to a combination of very low birth rates, fewer people marrying (especially women), high cost of raising children, demanding work culture, and an aging society with more deaths than births, compounded by limited immigration. Fewer young women are marrying and having children, while high life expectancy means a large elderly population and increasing deaths, creating a demographic imbalance where deaths exceed births.
Experts have pointed to Japan's high cost of living, stagnant economy and wages, limited space, and demanding work culture as reasons fewer people are opting to date, marry or have children. For women, economic costs are not the only turn-off.
But why are young Japanese having so few children? One reason appears to be the uncer- tain employment prospects for young men, which make them poor candidates for marriage. The persistence of strong gender differences in housework and childcare also make the “marriage package” unattractive for Japanese women.
Population growth has been slowing down over the past 50 years, and the average total fertility rate stands at 2.2. In about half of countries, it has fallen below 2.1, the threshold generally needed to maintain a steady population (see 'Declining fertility'). Small changes in these numbers can have strong effects.
But that boom is now over, and it has been replaced by a trend of declining fertility and increased lifespans. Policy experiments have failed to reverse the aging of our population, but public policy can and should help society adapt to our new demographic reality.
The UN says Bulgaria is actually the world's fastest shrinking nation, with its current population of about 7 million people expected to dwindle to 5.4 million by 2050 and 3.9 million by the end of the century.
The projections in the report assume this with no upper limit, though at a slowing pace depending on circumstances in individual countries. By 2100, the report assumed life expectancy to be from 66 to 97 years, and by 2300 from 87 to 106 years, depending on the country.
As of 2022, South Korea is the country with the world's lowest total fertility rate, at 0.78. In 2022, the TFR of the capital Seoul was 0.57.
Future projections are based on the United Nations World Population Prospects (from 1950 until 2100). Long-term projections indicate that the growth rate of the human population on the planet will continue to slow down, and that before the end of the 21st century it will reach growth zero.
The main factors behind this shift appear to be economic pressure, societal expectations placed on women to bear children, and environmental threats. These factors have collectively shaped a world in which having children no longer feels like a viable or safe option.
On 4 June 2025, due to a below replacement birth rate, the government lifted all regulations regarding the number of children families are allowed to have Under the revised law, families are afforded the freedom to decide how many children they would like to have, childbirth timing, and spacing between births.
Explanations for declining marriage rates in Japan include, but are certainly not limited to, attitudinal change, the high costs of children, the comforts of single life, and the difficulties of balancing work and family in a highly gender-inegalitarian society.
The 2025 Problem—The Near Future of Japan's Aging (Mr. Yoh Satoh, Relife-Project Senior Administrator, The Asahi Shimbun) In 2025, all 6.5 million of Japan's dankai generation (baby boomers) will be 75 or older.
In Japan, life expectancy at birth (years) has improved by ▲ 2.93 years from 81.5 [81.5 - 81.6] years in 2000 to 84.5 [84.5 - 84.5] years in 2021.
As of mid-2025, Japan is contending with three key economic challenges: sustaining a fragile recovery, reducing its overreliance on China amid geopolitical and supply chain disruptions, and confronting the long-term consequences of its demographic crisis.
While there is some uncertainty around the future size of the world's population, the estimated likelihood that it will peak within the current century is 80 per cent, with the peak likely to occur sometime between the mid-2060s and 2100.
Europe has been losing population since 2021, according to numbers by the United Nations Population Division. Among the 10 fastest shrinking places on Earth are six on the continent: Greece, San Marino and Belarus as well as Balkan nations Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Kosovo.
Possible causes of a societal collapse include natural catastrophe, war, pestilence, famine, economic collapse, population decline or overshoot, mass migration, incompetent leaders, and sabotage by rival civilizations.
Of all live births in the United States during 2021-2023 (average), 25.3% were Hispanic, 50.5% were White, 13.9% were Black, 0.7% were American Indian/Alaska Native and 6.2% were Asian/Pacific Islander.
Ranked: Countries With the Fewest Children by Population Share. Hong Kong (12.6%), South Korea (12.9%), and Japan (14.0%) have the fewest children as a share of the population in 2025. Relatedly, they also have some of the highest shares of seniors.
China now has the highest number and percentage of only children in the world due to their policy that strongly encouraged young families to have solely one child.
The direct death toll alone could amount to tens to hundreds of millions of people. Or maybe even billions. If, in an absolute worst case scenario, 99 percent of the world population would die, that would leave 80 million people alive. Meaning in terms of population we would be back to 2500 BC.
Potential anthropogenic causes of human extinction include global thermonuclear war, deployment of a highly effective biological weapon, ecological collapse, runaway artificial intelligence, runaway nanotechnology (such as a grey goo scenario), overpopulation and increased consumption causing resource depletion and a ...