Elderly living alone to make up a fifth of Japanese households by 2025: study

Tokyo: One in five Japanese households by 2050 will be elderly people living alone, a new study said Friday, as Japan scrambles to find how to effecti...

Tokyo: One in five Japanese households by 2050 will be elderly people living alone, a new study said Friday, as Japan scrambles to find how to effectively care for its greying population.

By 2050, 10.8 million elderly people will be living alone, making up 20.6 percent of all households, the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research said in a projection that it issues every five years.

It marks an increase since 2020, when 7.37 million elderly, or 13.2 percent of all households, lived alone.

The projection came as young Japanese people delay marriage or choose not to have children partly because they cannot afford to do so.

Japan is facing a steadily worsening population crisis, as its expanding elderly population leads to soaring medical and welfare costs and a shrinking labour force to pay for it.