The number of babies born in Japan fell for the 10th straight year in 2025, according to preliminary statistics from the country's health ministry. In another grim milestone, births dipped below the 710,000 mark 17 years earlier than anticipated, despite heavy government investments in measures to temper the country's demographic decline . Births are falling in many high- and middle-income countries, with an estimated two-thirds of the world’s population living in regions where the total