Definition: This entry gives a figure for the average number of children that would be born per woman if all women lived to the end of their childbearing years and bore children according to a given fertility rate at each age. The total fertility rate (TFR) is a more direct measure of the level of fertility than the crude birth rate, since it refers to births per woman. This indicator shows the potential for population change in the country. A rate of two children per woman is considered the replacement rate for a population, resulting in relative stability in terms of total numbers. Rates above two children indicate populations growing in size and whose median age is declining. Higher rates may also indicate difficulties for families, in some situations, to feed and educate their children and for women to enter the labor force. Rates below two children indicate populations decreasing in size and growing older. Global fertility rates are in general decline and this trend is most pronounced in industrialized countries, especially Western Europe, where populations are projected to decline dramatically over the next 50 years.
Source: CIA World Factbook - Unless otherwise noted, information in this page is accurate as of January 1, 2012
See also: Total fertility rate mapRelated News
All my children: How soap operas helped end high fertility rates
Houston Chronicle - 5/15/2013 1:56:29 PM
About 50 years ago India had a fertility rate of nearly six — the number of births per woman. Today that rate is 2.5, which is barely above the estimated U.S. rate of 2.1 in 2011, and essentially the level needed to keep a constant population of about 1 ...
Declining fertility rate the biggest threat to America?
FOX News - 5/10/2013 11:56:33 PM
And all viewed ... to the mean very quickly that leveling effect American culture polls -- fertility rates -- And secondly the source of immigration regardless of what our policy decisions we make here. The source may be drying up as well because fertility ...
Fertility Rate Linked to Television Ownership and Media Exposure
Med India - 5/14/2013 4:20:50 PM
A new study conducted by a Stanford University researcher suggests that television and internet could be the reason why fertility rates are dropping across the world. Martin Lewis analyzed the changing birth rates of nations and compared them ...
TV Linked with Falling Birth Rates
LiveScience - 5/13/2013 5:33:37 PM
Birth rates ... a country's population will eventually level off) is 2.19 births per woman. Birth rates have declined significantly in many areas of the world, to a degree that is perhaps overlooked. This is particularly true in India, where the fertility ...
Birth rate falls as Europeans struggle with crisis
Irish Independent - 5/11/2013 4:07:06 AM
The total fertility rate – the average amount of children born per woman – of Europe's 31 countries rose in 2008, when the effects of the recession had just begun to take hold, but has fallen ever since. In 2008 no country had fewer than 1.3 live ...
Poor Countries Lack Modern Contraception
Voice of America - 5/20/2013 9:54:20 AM
“The Guttmacher Institute for a long time has focused on issues of reproductive health and especially the high rates of unplanned child bearing and unplanned pregnancies across the world – the United States, as well as other countrie
World’s Biggest Volatility Jump Spurs Fund Outflow
Bloomberg - 5/20/2013 1:54:44 AM
Government bonds issued by Group of Seven countries excluding Japan have returned 18 percent this year in yen terms, compared with 0.55 percent for Japan’s government bonds, Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes show. Japan’s five-year note ...
US surpasses other industrialized countries in infant death rate
World Socialist Web Site - 5/9/2013 3:36:40 PM
A new report on motherhood paints a devastating portrait of social conditions for poor women and their babies around the world. In both developing and industrialized countries, the first month of birth is the most dangerous of an infant’s life.
Developing world to dominate investment
Yahoo! News - 5/18/2013 6:10:38 PM
By that time, the developing world could account for 87 to 93 percent of global growth. Under certain scenarios, “financial markets in economies like Brazil, India, and those of the Middle East will develop considerably, with these countries attaining ...
Developing World to Dominate Global Investment by 2030
ipsnews.net - 5/17/2013 12:39:33 AM
According to new scenarios released Thursday by the World Bank, developing countries could control some 158 trillion dollars (at 2010 rates) by 2030 ... economies constituted just a fifth of the global total, this could now triple over the next decade ...
Mideast youth need 46 million jobs by 2020
Salon - 5/11/2013 5:43:08 PM
In Arab Spring countries, anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of the population are estimated to be under 25, with the biggest youth bulge in Yemen and the smallest in Tunisia. Fertility rates, while falling, drive the world’s second highest rate ...
3 Countries With Awful Demographics
The Motley Fool - 4/29/2013 3:34:12 PM
If Japan's fertility stays where it is, the country will contract by more than half -- to 56.8 million -- by the end of the century. What's shocking here is the rate of increase in ... nearly triple as a share of its total population.
Fertility Rates and Population Decline: No Time for Children?
eNews Park Forest - 4/29/2013 4:02:50 PM
On May 15: A new book which explores the far reaching implications of the dramatic decline in fertility rates across the world will be launched ... Sciences in 2009 and appointed to their Council in 2012. She was awarded an MBE for services to social ...
Mideast economies need to create 46 million jobs by 2020 to reduce unemployment to global norm
Newser - 5/11/2013 5:35:59 PM
In Arab Spring countries, anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of the population are estimated to be under 25, with the biggest youth bulge in Yemen and the smallest in Tunisia. Fertility rates, while falling, drive the world's second highest rate of population ...
