3106.0 - Demography News, Nov 2008  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 26/11/2008   
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RELEASE OF BIRTHS, AUSTRALIA, 2007 (CAT. NO. 3301.0)


Births, Australia, 2007 (cat. no. 3301.0) was released on 28 October 2008. There were 285,200 births registered in Australia in 2007, the highest number of births ever registered. Australia's total fertility rate in 2007 was 1.93 babies per woman.

The content of this publication was reviewed, with the aim of reducing duplication of data. Tables previously presented in the printed publication (in Adobe PDF format) have been removed and are now available in data cubes (in Microsoft Excel format) from the ABS website.

Changes in ABS processing of data collected by state/territory Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages for 2007 have resulted in the availability of improved information on previous births to mothers. For 2007, data on previous births for all relationships (both current and previous, if any) of the mother are collected for all states and territories, excluding Victoria and Queensland.

Registration of births is compulsory in Australia under relevant state/territory legislation. Further, amendments to the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999 which took effect from 1 July 2007 require the registration of, or application for registration of the birth of a child as a condition of applying for the Baby Bonus. A comparison of intervals between the occurrence and registration of births over the past four years show no indication that improvements in the timeliness of registration of births have occurred since 1 July 2007.