Japan earthquake and tsunami: 478 bodies remain unidentified one year on The statistics also show a relatively high number of the victims were elderly, with more than 56 percent aged 65 or older. Females accounted for 53 percent of the total. Some 1,046 people aged 19 or younger died or are still listed as missing as a result of the disaster, with 466 of the dead aged 9 or younger. Police have put in 550,000 man hours searching the three worst-affected prefectures since March 11, but the number of remains recovered has fallen sharply since April, when 3,254 bodies were found. The figure had declined to 60 in September but fewer than 10 every month since December. Only one body was found in January, although nine were recovered in February. The figure for March may be slightly higher as police teams and firemen on Thursday began a two-day sweep of the exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Access to the area has been restricted due to elevated levels of radioactivity from the plant, but the search teams are focusing the effort on an area downstream of a dam that collapsed in the earthquake. Among those who survived, the triple disaster has caused the population of the three worst-hit regions - Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima - to plummet by more than 80,000, according to Japanese media reports. The population drop has been fuelled not only by the high death toll, but primarily by those made homeless due to the tsunami or nuclear disaster who have subsequently relocated to elsewhere in the country. Health concerns surrounding the safety of living in the region following radiation leakages from Fukushima's damaged nuclear power plant as well as collapsed business opportunities are other factors likely to have influenced the regional population, which has dropped to 5.6 million. The main focus of the population drop was focused the Fukushima region, where the world's worst nuclear crisis in decades resulted in the evacuation of tens of thousands of people last year. Experts warned that the exodus of residents, in particular women and children, would result in populations shrinking dramatically over the coming decades, according to the Mainichi newspaper. "At this rate, the population (in Fukushima Prefecture) will decrease by half by 2040," Kyoko Deguchi, associate professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, told the newspaper.