Column  Finance and the Social Security System  2018.02.21

【Aging, safety net and fiscal crisis in Japan】No.37: Number of households with heads aged over 65: by family type

In this column series, Yukihiro Matsuyama, Research Director at CIGS introduces the latest information about aging, safety net and fiscal crisis in Japan with data of international comparison.
Aging Society&Others

According to the Household Projections for Japan 2015‐2040, as mentioned in Column No. 36, the number of one-person households will increase from 18.4 million in 2015 to 19.9 million in 2040, while the total number of households would decrease. This is because the number of one-person households with heads aged over 65 will increase rapidly. As shown in Table 1, one-person households with heads aged 65 to 74 will increase from 2.8 million in 2015 to 3.8 million in 2040. One-person households with heads aged over 75 are also expected to rise to 5.1 million in 2040 from 4.7 million in 2015.

A major problem with this is that these elderly one-person households will concentrate in large cities. As mentioned in Column No. 25, one in five of them is expected to suffer from dementia.


Table 1 Number of households with heads aged over 65 by family type

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(Source)National Institute of Population and Social Security Research