National News Number of births up from January to June

フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする

The number of births in Japan between January and June has gone up for the first time in six years, according to a government report released Aug. 21.

A total of 549,255 babies were registered in the first half of this year, an increase by 11,618 from the same period last year

The fertility rate hit a record low of 1.25 last year, with fewer people getting married, marrying young and giving birth soon after marriage

The fertility rate is the average number of children born to a woman aged between 15 and 49.

The report also showed that the number of marriages registered between January and June was 367,965, up 10,936 cases from the same period last year

An increase in the percentage of married people in their 30s helped increase the total number of marriages and births.

The number of deaths in the six-month period, which was high last year because of influenza, dropped this year by 4,589 to 564,082

The natural population increase, calculated by subtracting the number of deaths from the number of births in the one year up to June, was 11,846

But Ryuichi Kaneko, a researcher at the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, said, "We cannot conclude with just these results that birthrates (in Japan) have stopped falling." (Kyodo)

出生数が6年ぶりの増加

今年1月から6月までの出生数が前年同期より増え、6年ぶりの増加に転じたことが8月21日明らかになった。

Shukan ST: Sept. 1, 2006

(C) All rights reserved