TOKYO, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The percentage of young single people in Japan who said they intend to marry one day has fallen below 80 percent for the first time for both men and women, according to a government survey.
According to the survey released Friday by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, among unmarried respondents aged between 18 and 34, 75.1 percent of men said they intend to marry eventually, down from 81.4 percent in the previous survey in 2021, while the figure for women dropped from 84.3 percent to 77.8 percent.
The institute has conducted surveys on birth and marriage trends almost every five years since 1940. The latest survey was conducted as of June 2025, with more than 11,000 single people and married couples responding.
Interest in having children continued its downward trend. Among married couples surveyed, the ideal number of children averaged 2.18, down from 2.25 in the previous survey. The average number they actually plan to have fell below 2 for the first time on record, slipping to 1.95.
Meanwhile, more than 30 percent of unmarried respondents said they do not wish to have children, the highest percentage since comparable data became available in 2002.
Among men, 33.0 percent said they do not want any children, up 9.8 percentage points from the previous survey, while the figure for women rose 8.8 points to 32.4 percent, the survey said. ■
