It is one of major challenges in community ecology to understand how species functional differences in traits associate with temporal changes in their demographic performance. We examined how diverse co-occurring species differ in their traits and how such differences associate with demographic rates across 28 co-occurring woody species in an evergreen broad-leaves forest in Aya forest reserve, Miyazaki in Japan. We summarized leaf traits across co-occurring species using a principal component analysis (PCA) and the first two dimensions in PC axes were associated with construction cost and tolerance in leaves, respectively both in juvenile and adult stages. By using census data in the 4-ha dynamics plot from 1989 to 2017, we estimate relative growth rates and survival rates of each species. Then, we examine how their species traits including leaf traits, wood density and adult stature are associated with temporal changes in demographic rates.