TOKYO -- Japan's fertility rate likely reached a record low of 1.21 in 2023, based on a new estimate, with the country's demographic decline outpacing the government forecast.
The rate, which represents the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, is 0.05 below the previous low from 2005 and 2022, according to calculations by Takuya Hoshino, an economist at Japan's Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. It likely fell for the eighth straight year, he said.
