【Aging, safety net and fiscal crisis in Japan】No.284: The number of people in Japan that are over 100 years old was 80,450 in September 2020

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare released statistics on the population of people over 100 years old ahead of a holiday called “Day of Respect for the Elderly,” which is celebrated on the third Monday of September. As shown in Figure 1, the part of the population that is over 100 years old increased from 3,298 in 1990 to 80,450 in 2020. An overwhelming majority of these were female, with 70,975 females and only 9,475 males. As explained in Column No.137, the number of people over 100 years old in Japan is projected to exceed 500,000 by 2050.

Figure 2 compares the results of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' estimation of the elderly population ratio in July 2020 to other countries (based on the World Population Prospects conducted by the United Nations with the elderly population ratio in September 2020 in Japan). It is noteworthy that Japan's elderly population ratio (28.7%) is more than double than that of China’s (12.0%); additionally, the number of people that are over 75 years old in Japan, as well as in Italy and Germany, is larger than the population aged between 65 and 74 years.

Figure 1 Population over 100 years old inJapan by gender

Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

Figure 2 International comparison of the ratio of elderly populations

Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications