Japan's internal affairs ministry says one out of 10 people in the country is estimated to be 80 or older.

The ministry announced the demographic statistics on Sunday, one day before the Respect for the Aged Day national holiday.

It says the number of people who were 65 or older as of last Friday fell by about 10,000 from last year to 36.2 million. This marks the first decline since comparable data became available in 1950. Of the 36.2 million, 15.7 million were men and 20.5 million were women.

As the country's birthrate is declining, the ratio of elderly to the total population rose by 0.1 percentage point to a record 29.1 percent.

The number of people aged 80 or older rose by 270,000 from last year to a record 12.5 million, or more than 10 percent of Japan's population.

The working elderly population stood at 9.1 million in 2022, increasing for the 19th consecutive year.

At 25.2 percent, Japan's ratio of working elderly is the highest among the major economies.

Last year, 50.8 percent of those aged between 65 and 69, and 33.5 percent of those aged between 70 and 74 were still working.

The ministry says these ratios are expected to continue to rise due to the ongoing labor shortage.