One in ten in Japan will be foreign by 2070
Foreign nationals as a share of Japan's population, 2020 and IPSS 2023 projections to 2070.
- 1. The world has already passed peak child
- 2. Japan's median age is more than three times Niger's
- 3. South Korea now has a quarter of its 1971 births
- 4. China's population is projected to more than halve by 2100
- 5. Japan now has over 100,000 centenarians, up from 153
- 6. Japan has 9 million empty homes: one in seven
- 7. One in ten in Japan will be foreign by 2070
- 8. Japan's foreign residents have doubled since 2012, passing 4 million
- 9. Jakarta, not Tokyo, is the world's largest city
- 10. Two in three newly licensed UK doctors qualified abroad
- 11. Iran dropped from top refugee host to fifth in 2025
- 12. More Christians live in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else
- 13. Two in three people live where fertility is below replacement
- 14. Japan's births fell below half their 1899 level
- 15. DR Congo now has more children than Brazil
- 16. Brazil now has more people over 65 than Germany
- 17. Egypt has more asylum seekers than Germany, Spain and Italy
- 18. 34 countries and territories are past their population peak
- 19. Chile's fertility rate fell below Italy's and Japan's
- 20. Nigeria now has almost 25 million more people than Brazil
- 21. Thailand's births have fallen below its deaths
- 22. Women hold at least half the seats in seven parliaments
- 23. Child marriage in South Asia has nearly halved since 2005
- 24. Six in ten child deaths now happen in sub-Saharan Africa
Japan's foreign population share is projected to rise almost fivefold between 2020 and 2070.
Foreign nationals projected in 2070, out of a total population of 87.0 million.
The foreign population grows from 2.75 million in 2020 to 9.39 million, while the total shrinks by about a third.
the numbers & method
| Year | Foreign share of population (%) |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 2.2 |
| 2030 | 3.5 |
| 2040 | 5.2 |
| 2050 | 7.0 |
| 2060 | 8.8 |
| 2070 | 10.8 |
Claim types Fact · Forecast
Figures from an IPSS slide deck hosted by the Immigration Services Agency, citing IPSS's 2023 projections (published April 2023). The deck does not name the scenario; the 2070 total of 86,996 thousand matches the IPSS medium-fertility, medium-mortality projection, which assumes net foreign inflow of about 164,000 a year. 2020 is the census base; 2030–2070 are projections. Multiples are derived. 'Foreign population' here is the IPSS definition, which differs from the ISA count of foreign residents.
Published 3 Nov 2026
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