One in every 181 babies born in the world today is born in Japan. Japan has about 730,000 births a year, around 0.6% of all births worldwide.

Births per year
730,000
Share of world births
0.6%
Birth odds
1/181
Life expectancy
84 years
Risk of dying before age 5
0.2%
Income per person, PPP
$50,000
Children per woman
1.2
Urban population
92%

Life expectancy in Japan is 84 years, which is 11 years longer than the world average.

Of every 1,000 babies born here, about 2 do not reach their fifth birthday. The world average is 37 per 1,000.

Income per person is about $50,000 in purchasing power. That is 2.2 times the world average.

On average a woman has 1.2 children in her lifetime. The world average is 2.3.

About 92% of the population lives in cities. A baby born here has roughly a 8% chance of being born in the countryside.

Born in Japan: the longest lives and the fewest children

Life expectancy in Japan was around 50 just after the Second World War. It rose to 68 in the 1960s and, by the 1980s, to the highest level in the world. Today it is 84. Universal health insurance was completed in 1961, diets changed, and deaths from causes such as heart disease and stroke declined. Child mortality is now very low, at 2 per thousand.

Fertility was above 3.5 in the early 1950s and fell below the replacement level after the mid-1970s. Today there are 1.2 children per woman. The population peaked around 2008 and has been shrinking since, and about 29 percent of people are over 65. Young people moving to the cities is emptying the countryside, while a child born around Tokyo has more jobs and schools to choose from. Late marriage, long working hours and the cost of raising children are often cited as the reasons births are falling. A Japanese baby can therefore expect one of the longest lives in the world, but belongs to a generation that will carry the care burden of an elderly society.

Religious makeup

  • No religion57%
  • Buddhism36%
  • Folk beliefs4%
  • Christianity2%

Sample names given to people born in this country in the game

Haruto · Sota · Ren · Yuto · Yui · Sakura · Hina · Aoi

What would your life look like if you were reborn in Japan?

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Countries with a similar number of births

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Values are rounded approximations. Sources: UN World Population Prospects 2024, World Bank WDI, Pew Research Center 2020.