BIRTHS


There were 309,142 births registered in Australia in 2017. Over three-quarters (77.6%) of these births were to usual residents of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Just over half (51.5%) of all births registered in 2017 were boys, resulting in a sex ratio at birth of 106.2 male births per 100 female births. There were 1,962 less birth registrations in 2017 (a 0.63 % decrease) than in 2016 (311,104).



The median age of all mothers for births registered in 2017 was 31.3 years, while the median age of fathers was 33.3 years. For all median age data, see the dataset Confinements, by nuptiality, by state from the Downloads tab.



Of all births registered in 2017, 65.2 % of births were to parents in a registered marriage. For more information see the dataset Births, summary, by state from the Downloads tab.

The proportion of confinements resulting in a multiple birth has remained fairly consistent for the past decade, ranging from 1.5 to 1.6% of total confinements. In 2017, there were 4,528 confinements resulting in a multiple birth and 60 of these were triplets or higher order births. There were 50 less multiple births in 2017 than in 2016. For more information see the dataset Confinements, by plurality, by state from the Downloads tab.

Multiple births, states and territories - 2017(a)(b)
		Single	Twins	Triplets and higher order	Total multiple births	Total confinements
State of territory of usual residence		no.	no.	no.	no.	no.
New South Wales		93 795	1 388	23	1 411	95 206
Victoria		79 745	1 175	14	1 189	80 934
Queensland		59 402	890	11	901	60 303
South Australia		18 547	263	3	265	18 812
Western Australia		33 476	507	8	515	33 991
Tasmania		5 432	90	0	90	5 522
Northern Territory		3 774	54	0	54	3 828
Australian Capital Territory		6 010	100	1	102	61 12
Australia(c)		300 209	4 468	60	4 528	304 737
- nil or rounded to zero
(a) A multiple birth is a confinement (pregnancy) which results in two or more children, at least one of which is live-born.
(b) Where necessary, small values have been suppressed or randomised to protect confidentiality. As a result, sums of components may not add exactly to totals.

(c) Includes Other Territories. Births occurred on Norfolk Island from 1 July 2016 are included in this publication. See Explanatory Note 3 for more information.