TOKYO: The number of children aged under 15 in Japan hit a record low of 17.14 million as of April 1, the government said on Monday, the latest sign of the nation's rapid shift to an increasingly elderly society.

The child population was down by 110,000 from a year earlier, marking the 28th consecutive annual decline, according to a report released by the internal affairs ministry.

It was the lowest since 1950, when the government began releasing breakdowns of its population, the ministry said.

The report also showed that children's share of the nation's entire population stood at 13.4 percent, compared with 22.5 percent for a population of people aged over 65.

The children's share ratio was the lowest among the 31 countries with a population of at least 30 million listed in the United Nation's demographic yearbook, it added.

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