Japan's fertility rate made a minor jump last year, but the size of the population is still shrinking. The number of children a Japanese woman might give birth to in her lifetime, known as the “total fertility rate,” rose to an average of 1.43, an increase of 0.02 over 2012.
As in other societies where women pursue careers, there was an increase in the number of women giving birth in their 30s and 40s. Even so, the 1,029,800 babies born in Japan last year represent the lowest number ever recorded. And 1,268,432 Japanese died last year, the highest number since the Second World War.
