France vs Japan: Number of live births

France
686,564 births
in 2022
Japan
727,288 births
in 2023
France rank
5th
Japan rank
4th

Number of live births over time

  • France
  • Japan
500.0k1.0M1.5M2.0M2.5M194619842023

How they compare

Japan currently reports 727,288 births against 686,564 births in France, a difference of 40,724 births.

That makes Japan's figure about 1.1 times France's.

Across all 76 years both countries report, Japan has been ahead every year.

France ranks 5th and Japan ranks 4th of 34 countries.

Japan has averaged higher in every one of the 9 decades both report.

Head to head by decade

Decade France Japan Difference Ahead
1940s 871,323 births 2.71 million births 1.84 million births Japan
1950s 819,745 births 1.85 million births 1.03 million births Japan
1960s 848,531 births 1.72 million births 867,114 births Japan
1970s 797,220 births 1.90 million births 1.10 million births Japan
1980s 776,301 births 1.44 million births 659,170 births Japan
1990s 736,131 births 1.21 million births 469,354 births Japan
2000s 778,334 births 1.12 million births 337,898 births Japan
2010s 761,742 births 991,037 births 229,295 births Japan
2020s 695,016 births 808,056 births 113,040 births Japan

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher number of live births, France or Japan?
Japan, at 727,288 births against 686,564 births in France as of 2023.
What is the difference in number of live births between France and Japan?
40,724 births, with Japan ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for France and Japan?
76 years are reported by both, from 1947 to 2022.
How do France and Japan rank globally for number of live births?
France ranks 5th and Japan ranks 4th of 34 countries.
Where does this data come from?
Human Fertility Database (2025) – processed by Our World in Data, published as Number of live births. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Individual pages

About this data

Indicator
Number of live births
Unit
births
Source
Human Fertility Database (2025) – processed by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
34 places, 2,331 data points, 1891–2024
Last refreshed

The total number of live births recorded in a given year.