More than 10% of Japanese people are over 80 years old, a rate that had never been recorded, according to data published by the country’s government, which is fighting against the aging of its population.
Authorities published the number on Sunday, the eve of a holiday in Japan dedicated to the “elderly”, people over 65.
According to official estimates, 29.1% of Japanese people are over 65 years old, which represents a slight increase compared to the previous year (29%).
“Japan has the highest rate of elderly people in the world”, ahead of Italy (24.5%) and Finland (23.6%), said the Ministry of the Interior.
Furthermore, of Japan’s 124 million inhabitants, 20 million are over 75 years old (16.1%) and 12.59 million are over 80 (10.1%).
For several decades, Japan’s population has been shrinking and aging as young people have children at increasingly later ages, in part due to economic hardship.
One of the consequences of demographic change is that the population works until older ages.
Thus, more than nine million people over 65 years of age (25% of the population in this age group) continue to work, which represents 13.6% of the active population. The projection is that in 2040 almost 35% of the Japanese population will be over 65 years old.
© Agence France-Presse
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