Japan's Kyodo News said on Sunday that senior citizens accounted for a record 28-point-four percent of the country's population.

Citing data released by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry prior to “Respect for the Aged” holiday which falls on Monday, the daily said the number of citizens aged 65 or older stood at 35-point-88 million as of Sunday, up 320-thousand from a year earlier. 

The elderly made up a record 28-point-four percent of Japan’s population, up point-three percentage points from a year earlier. That's also the largest figure for any country.

Italy came in second with 23 percent, followed by Portugal, Finland, Greece, Germany and Bulgaria. The comparable figure for the world stood at nine-point-one percent.

The paper, citing government data, said the figure for South Korea stood at 15-point-one percent and that its low birthrate makes it poised to overtake Japan by 2050 as the country with the highest percentage of elderly citizens in the world.