Australian fertility rate hits record low

Media Release

Released

8/12/2021

Source

Births, Australia, 2020

Australia registered a total of 294,369 births in 2020 resulting in a total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.58 babies per woman according to the latest figures released from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

ABS Director of Demography, Beidar Cho said: “The record low total fertility rate can be attributed to fewer births and birth registrations in most jurisdictions in a year marked by COVID-19 disruptions.”

The Northern Territory recorded the highest TFR (1.86 babies per woman) closely followed by Tasmania (1.77 babies per woman) and Western Australia (1.70 babies per woman), while Victoria recorded the lowest rate (1.43 babies per woman).

“In 2020, the total fertility rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers was 2.25 babies per woman. There were 22,016 births registered (7 per cent of all births) where at least one parent was an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian,” Ms Cho said.

In the past 30 years, the TFR has slowly declined from 1.9 in 1990. This decline was most prominent among women aged 15 to 19 years where the fertility rate decreased by nearly two-thirds (to 7.8 per 1,000 women). The fertility rate of women aged 20 to 24 years also saw a large decline.

In contrast, the fertility rate of women aged 40 to 44 years almost tripled (to 15.2 per 1,000 women), while women aged 30 to 34 years continue to have the highest fertility rate (110 babies per 1,000 women), followed by women aged 25 to 29 years (79.7 babies per 1,000 women).

“The long-term decline in fertility of younger mums as well as the continued increase in fertility of older mums reflects a shift towards later childbearing. Together, this has resulted in a rise in median age of mothers (31.6 years) and a fall in Australia's total fertility rate,” Ms Cho said.

Further details are in Births, Australia, 2020. Australia, state, territory and sub-state information is also available for free download from the ABS website https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population

Total fertility rate by state, 1971 to 2020
Year	NSW (rate)	Vic. (rate)	Qld (rate)	SA (rate)	WA (rate)	Tas. (rate)	NT (rate)	ACT (rate)
1971	2.806	2.858	3.025	2.629	3.047	2.903	4.029	2.908
1972	2.653	2.634	2.854	2.423	2.673	2.695	3.477	2.728
1973	2.385	2.393	2.637	2.192	2.391	2.461	3.291	2.493
1974	2.303	2.298	2.5	2.113	2.263	2.422	2.988	2.444
1975	2.125	2.099	2.316	1.999	2.181	2.232	2.849	2.14
1976	2.037	2.024	2.18	1.867	2.143	2.107	3.041	2.077
1977	1.995	1.954	2.108	1.857	2.074	2.067	2.741	2.092
1978	1.953	1.907	2.02	1.765	2.015	2.066	2.653	1.965
1979	1.902	1.849	2.007	1.737	1.963	2.024	2.7	2.002
1980	1.925	1.838	1.932	1.727	1.925	1.972	2.286	1.98
1981	1.942	1.85	2.052	1.786	1.982	2.071	2.63	1.916
1982	1.958	1.842	2.06	1.763	1.952	2	2.319	1.878
1983	1.929	1.818	2.085	1.799	1.985	1.999	2.39	1.868
1984	1.794	1.789	1.981	1.806	1.842	1.997	2.317	1.823
1985	2.002	1.831	1.949	1.773	1.94	2.011	2.314	1.793
1986	1.911	1.772	1.912	1.761	1.976	1.924	2.217	1.744
1987	1.915	1.787	1.832	1.712	1.86	1.883	2.313	1.708
1988	1.851	1.781	1.841	1.696	1.962	1.89	2.245	1.765
1989	1.859	1.806	1.852	1.727	1.907	1.898	2.177	1.679
1990	1.95	1.863	1.932	1.744	1.903	1.945	2.265	1.782
1991	1.867	1.808	1.873	1.723	1.904	1.903	2.256	1.867
1992	1.971	1.814	1.93	1.7	1.874	1.945	2.369	1.725
1993	1.908	1.777	1.916	1.786	1.876	1.926	2.268	1.688
1994	1.879	1.791	1.876	1.746	1.871	1.948	2.278	1.703
1995	1.871	1.758	1.843	1.763	1.853	1.89	2.323	1.677
1996	1.834	1.715	1.871	1.764	1.81	1.891	2.162	1.661
1997	1.843	1.701	1.829	1.712	1.794	1.793	2.14	1.607
1998	1.811	1.692	1.825	1.713	1.778	1.816	2.162	1.537
1999	1.835	1.641	1.8	1.707	1.785	1.878	2.125	1.642
2000	1.828	1.645	1.819	1.718	1.804	1.803	2.178	1.566
2001	1.775	1.625	1.826	1.688	1.723	2.072	2.255	1.506
2002	1.813	1.697	1.814	1.735	1.699	1.968	2.227	1.571
2003	1.806	1.68	1.804	1.722	1.744	1.885	2.3	1.573
2004	1.801	1.713	1.837	1.699	1.814	1.908	2.155	1.593
2005	1.912	1.732	1.872	1.776	1.87	2.075	2.195	1.596
2006	1.927	1.772	1.875	1.811	1.954	2.134	2.206	1.686
2007	1.999	1.889	2.129	1.936	1.992	2.201	2.273	1.749
2008	2.052	1.878	2.136	1.972	2.095	2.235	2.229	1.74
2009	1.978	1.826	2.174	1.892	1.951	2.172	2.106	1.722
2010	2.02	1.785	2.087	1.897	1.936	2.08	2.122	1.783
2011	1.963	1.778	2.017	1.867	1.918	2.154	2.148	1.737
2012	1.93	1.883	1.996	1.896	1.916	2.028	2.163	1.778
2013	1.938	1.756	1.944	1.845	1.893	1.997	2.062	1.767
2014	1.723	1.715	1.91	1.85	1.906	1.963	2.041	1.738
2015	1.857	1.653	1.849	1.755	1.869	1.878	2.009	1.701
2016	1.743	1.802	1.824	1.758	1.875	1.964	1.938	1.551
2017	1.708	1.724	1.772	1.684	1.825	1.823	1.909	1.833
2018	1.862	1.598	1.761	1.671	1.759	1.767	2.027	1.547
2019	1.685	1.525	1.724	1.686	1.767	1.786	1.837	1.572
2020	1.62	1.428	1.643	1.585	1.7	1.765	1.863	1.519

Total fertility rate by state, 1971 to 2020

["Year","NSW","Vic.","Qld","SA","WA","Tas.","NT","ACT"]

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999999999],[2.988],[2.8490000000000002],[3.0409999999999999],[2.7410000000000001],[2.653],[2.7000000000000002],[2.286],[2.6299999999999999],[2.319],[2.3900000000000001],[2.3170000000000002],[2.3140000000000001],[2.2170000000000001],[2.3130000000000002],[2.2450000000000001],[2.177],[2.2650000000000001],[2.2559999999999998],[2.3690000000000002],[2.2679999999999998],[2.278],[2.323],[2.1619999999999999],[2.1400000000000001],[2.1619999999999999],[2.125],[2.1779999999999999],[2.2549999999999999],[2.2269999999999999],[2.2999999999999998],[2.1549999999999998],[2.1949999999999998],[2.206],[2.2730000000000001],[2.2290000000000001],[2.1059999999999999],[2.1219999999999999],[2.1480000000000001],[2.1629999999999998],[2.0619999999999998],[2.0409999999999999],[2.0089999999999999],[1.9379999999999999],[1.909],[2.0270000000000001],[1.837],[1.863]],[[2.9079999999999999],[2.7280000000000002],[2.4929999999999999],[2.444],[2.1400000000000001],[2.077],[2.0920000000000001],[1.9650000000000001],[2.0019999999999998],[1.98],[1.9159999999999999],[1.8779999999999999],[1.8680000000000001],[1.823],[1.7929999999999999],[1.744],[1.708],[1.7649999999999999],[1.679],[1.782],[1.867],[1.7250000000000001],[1.6879999999999999],[1.7030000000000001],[1.677],[1.661],[1.607],[1.5369999999999999],[1.6419999999999999],[1.5660000000000001],[1.506],[1.571],[1.573],[1.593],[1.5960000000000001],[1.6859999999999999],[1.7490000000000001],[1.74],[1.722],[1.7829999999999999],[1.7370000000000001],[1.778],[1.7669999999999999],[1.738],[1.7010000000000001],[1.5509999999999999],[1.833],[1.5469999999999999],[1.5720000000000001],[1.5189999999999999]]]

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Media notes

Lower birth numbers can be attributed to fewer births and birth registrations in most jurisdictions in a year marked by COVID-19 disruptions: New South Wales declined by 3,330 births (or -3.4%); Victoria declined by 3,846 births (or -4.9%); Queensland declined by 2,279 births (or -3.7%); South Australia declined by 952 births (or -4.9%); Western Australia declined by 1,090 births (or -3.3%); and Australian Capital Territory declined by 127 births (or -2.0%).
Birth records are provided electronically to the ABS by state and territory registrars on a monthly basis for compilation into aggregate statistics on a quarterly and annual basis.
Annual estimates on a year of registration basis are published within 12 months of the reference year in Births, Australia, the source of this media release. Quarterly estimates of births on a preliminary basis are published five to six months after the reference period in National, state and territory population and revised 21 months after the end of each financial year.
One dimension of timeliness in birth registrations data is the interval between the occurrence and registration of a birth. Some births occurring in one year are not registered until the following year or later. This can be caused by either a delay by the parent(s) in submitting a completed form to the registry, or a delay by the registry in processing the birth (for example, due to follow up activity due to missing information on the form, or resource limitations). More information available in Methodology in Births, Australia.
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Australian fertility rate hits record low

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