2010 - Number of children aged under 15 in Japan has fallen to the lowest level since records began in the 1950s,

The number of children aged under 15 in Japan has fallen to the lowest level since records began in the 1950s, as the population as a whole gets older and smaller, the government said Monday.

There were an estimated 16.93 million children as of April 1, down 90,000 from a year earlier, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said.

The estimate was based on 2010 national census data.

Children accounted for 13.2 per cent of the population, the ministry said. In contrast, the ratio of people aged 65 or older was a record-high 23.2 per cent. 

Of the 27 countries with a population of at least 40 million, Japan had the lowest ratio of children to the total population -- compared with 20.1 per cent for the United States and 18.5 per cent for China, the ministry said.

"The ratio of children kept declining since the first baby boom (1947-1949) to reach about one fourth of the total population in 1965, reflecting a decline in the number of new-born babies," the ministry said.

After the second baby boom (1971-1974), the ratio fell back again to slip below 15.7 per cent for people aged 65 or older in 1997, it added.

The ministry said in February that Japan's population stood at 128.06 million as of last October 1 and that it was expected to roughly halve on current trends to 60 million by 2100.

The population has been declining year-on-year since 2007.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-05-02/news/29496267_1_baby-boom-population-ratio