Australian women waiting longer to have children: data
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E-mail Xinhua, December 11, 2018
CANBERRA, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Australian women are waiting longer than ever to have children, data has revealed.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the birth rate among Australian women aged between 30 and 34 doubled in 2017 while it tripled among those aged 40-44.
The fertility of teenage women halved in the same period.
Women aged 30-34 were the most likely to be pregnant, followed by those aged 25-29.
There were 309,142 births registered in Australia in 2017.
The total fertility rate (TFR), which is the average number of children that would be born to a woman based on current trends, in 2017 was 1.74, the lowest figure since 2001.
"The long-term decline in fertility of younger mums as well as the continued increase in fertility of older mums reflects a shift towards late childbearing," Anthony Grubb, director of demography at the ABS, said in a media release on Tuesday.
"Together, this has resulted in a rise in median age of mothers and a fall in Australia's total fertility rate," Grubb said.
The TFR for indigenous women was 2.33 babies per woman and the Northern Territory (NT) had the highest TFR of any state or territory at 1.91. Enditem
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