The proportion of people age 65 and older in Japan reached the world's highest at 21 percent in 2005, surpassing Italy's 20 percent, the government said Friday in a preliminary report.

At the same time, the percentage of people under 15 in the total population hit the world's lowest at 13.6 percent, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said.

For both men and women, the percentage of unmarried people went up in all groups age 20 to 64, the report says.