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This is from the headline of a news article in NHK News Easy.

> 日本の人口が減る 赤ちゃんが今まで「で」いちばん少ない

Can someone explain this one to me? Thanks!
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2017-12-31T05:03:23.777
55553
2017-12-31T15:48:01.153
25884
question
grammar particles reading-comprehension
I don't understand the usage of で in this sentance
> 日本の人口が減る 赤ちゃんが今まで「で」いちばん少ない

"で" in the above sentence is difined by jisho.org
[here](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%A7) as:

> **で**  
>  Particle  
>  2. indicates time of action

My attempt for the given sentence is as follows.  
_The population of Japan decreases. The number of babies is the smallest up to
now._

* * *

# EDIT

I posted the closest one in jisho.org
[here](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%A7) as an answer, but since I got a
down vote, I'll correct it.

I looked で up in various dictionaries, but I couldn't find an explanation that
is perfect, but I think that the next one is better.

> で is a particle that indicates time range for establishing a certain fact.

The fact is "the number of babies (born over a certain period of time) is the
smallest" in the given sentence.
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2017-12-31T05:25:17.013
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2017-12-31T15:37:47.037
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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answer
で has many roles, but in this case it's a condition/situation/scope marker. It
denotes the condition in which the modified word is applied. It's translated
to various English prepositions, including "in", "among" and "under".

  * 合計で100円 100 yen _in_ total
  * 割引で買う to buy _at_ a discounted price
  * ～という仮定で話す to talk _under_ assumption that ～

今まで少ない (without で) would mean "(something) has been low/scarce up until now".
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-31T15:07:31.457
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answer