⁍ Japan has the most aged society in the world, with more than 35% of its population expected to be 65 and over by 2050.

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⁍ Recently published official data showed the number of notified pregnancies in the three months to July fell 11.4% from a year earlier.

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⁍ The number of marriages over the same period dropped 36.9%.

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– Japan’s population is aging so rapidly that by 2050, more than 35% of the country’s population will be 65 and over, reports Reuters. That’s already more than any other country in the world, and it’s only getting worse. The country’s latest data shows that the number of notified pregnancies in the first quarter of this year was down 11.4% from a year earlier, while the number of marriages fell 36.9%, reports the Wall Street Journal. “I reckon the spread of the coronavirus is having many people worried about getting pregnant, giving births, and rearing babies,” says Tetsushi Sakamoto, Japan’s minister in charge of responses to the country’s declining birthrates. Japan has already seen its birthrate fall to an all-time low of 865,000 births in 2019, down 5.8% from the year before. If the trend continues, officials say it could jeopardize the country’s economic growth. “This is very serious because negative effects could stay on, with the economic downturn leading to fewer marriages, and then to fewer births,” says an economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. “Current systems, including the social security system, will no longer be functional,” says a former minister in charge of the issue. “It will be a crisis in which the very existence of the nation as we know it is at stake.”