The graying of Japan has reached a new milestone, as a government estimate showed Tuesday that people aged 75 or older make up more than half of the country’s elderly population.

The population of the age group was estimated at 17.70 million, eclipsing for the first time the number of people aged 65 to 74, which stood at 17.64 million, according to the internal affairs ministry’s preliminary demographic estimate as of March 1.

Those aged 75 and older make up 14 percent of the country’s entire population of 126.52 million, with 6.93 million being men and 10.77 million women, the data showed.

The number of people aged 85 or older stood at 5.59 million, with 1.73 million men and 3.87 million women.