About this page
This page shows the World Bank's current population estimates for Japan: total population and the annual growth rate, from 1960 to the latest year the Bank publishes. Figures are republished unmodified; the change from the previous year is computed from the published values. Where a series shows Not tracked, the World Bank does not report it for this economy, and no value is estimated in its place.
How to read the numbers: population is a count of people taken at mid-year, and growth is how fast that count changes over the year. Both are estimates built from censuses, registers and surveys, and both are revised as new evidence arrives — so a rebuild can restate a past year when the source changes. Each series carries its own source line, and values are republished unmodified; selection, ordering and the year-over-year change are the only edits applied. Where a figure looks surprising, the source line under the table is the quickest way to check what it measures and which year it reflects.
Read the two series together and the shape of a population shows: the count is the stock, and the growth rate is the speed at which it is changing. A falling growth rate is not a falling population — an economy can keep adding people while growing more slowly each year, and a negative rate can follow years of increase. The chart and the tables show annual values only, and every figure carries the year it applies to, so start comparisons from the year column.
Two limits are worth knowing. First, these are estimates rather than counts: they are built from censuses, registers and surveys, and they are revised when new evidence arrives — so a rebuild can restate a year that once looked settled. Second, the series ends with the latest year the Bank publishes; this page carries no projections and no future years, and where the Bank publishes nothing, the gap stays open rather than being filled.