Japan's population including foreign residents fell 0.7 percent from 2015 to 126,226,568 as of Oct. 1, 2020, dropping out of the world's top 10 in size for the first time since 1950, the latest census and U.N. estimates showed Friday.

The data adds pressure on Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's government to try to slow the population decline in the world's third-largest economy. With a rapidly graying society, the number of newborns in 2020 fell to a record low of 840,832, partly due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Photo taken from a Kyodo News helicopter shows people crossing the famous scramble intersection near Shibuya Station in Tokyo on April 10, 2021, amid the continued spread of the novel coronavirus. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

The preliminary data released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed the population dropped by around 868,000 from 2015, when it marked its first decline -- of 0.8 percent -- since the census began in 1920. The population is measured every five years.

In the latest data, the margin of decline slightly narrowed due to an increase in non-Japanese residents to an estimated 2,556,183.

Japan, which comprised 1.6 percent of the global population, fell one place to 11th in the world ranking topped by China, according to the United Nations.

Among the top 20 countries, Japan was the only nation whose population declined between 2015 and 2020, the U.N. data showed.

Of the 47 prefectures in Japan, 38 saw their population fall, with 33 of them recording an accelerated rate of decline, led by a drop of 6.2 percent in Akita, northeastern Japan.

Tokyo and its neighboring prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa, bucked the trend and together recorded a population increase of 808,000. Tokyo registered a rise of 4.1 percent, the biggest among the 47 prefectures.

Other metropolitan areas including Aichi, Osaka and Fukuoka as well as Okinawa also saw population increases.

The number of households increased 4.2 percent to 55.72 million, the census showed. The average number of members per household fell to 2.27 from 2.38 in the 2015 survey, the lowest since comparable data became available in 1970 as more elderly people lived alone.

The number of babies born in 2020 hit the lowest level since the health ministry started taking such surveys in 1899. The figure was down 24,407 from the previous year when the number dipped below 900,000 for the first time.