Elementary School Students

Number of elementary school students from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's school basic survey. The number of elementary school students was devided by the popultaion of each prefecture, and the number of students per 100 population was calculated. Okinawa is ranked 1st, with 7.33 elementary school students per 100 population. Okinawa is followed by Shiga (6.33 students), Saga (6.13 students) and Aichi (6.13 students). Tokyo is ranked last, with 4.76 elementary school students per 100 population.

Regionally, there are many elementary school students in the inland of Honshu from the Chubu area to the northern Kanto area. On the other hand, the number of elementary school students is small in the northern part of the Tohoku area, Hokkaido, Tokyo, Shikoku and the San-in area. In the Tohoku, Shikoku and San-in areas, one factor causing the decrease in the number of elementary school students is believed to be many families raising small children moving out to urban areas. On the other hand, in areas around Tokyo, it is expensive raising children, such as for nursery schools and cram schools, and many couples may give up having children or may only decide to have a small number of children. Further, in Tokyo, which is a convenient place for living alone, there may be many young people who decide to stay single.

In general, there are many children in the central part of Honshu, and the further from the central part of Honshu, the fewer the number of children. Exceptions are Kyushu and Okinawa in which there are many children. Unlike Honshu, there may be a social environment in which it is possible to have children without hesitation.