In 2017, the United States saw the fewest babies born in 30 years, a stat that produced a lot of hand-wringing.
But it turns out things could be worse — a lot worse. We could be Japan, whose unfolding demographic crisis provides some lessons for where America might be headed.
According to a new report from the Japanese government, Japanese women had 921,000 babies in 2018. That's the fewest births since comparable records began in 1899 — when the country's population was a third its current size.
Meanwhile, deaths in Japan hit their highest level in nearly a century.