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
We've had declines in commodities prices but what we've seen since 1968 is -- market decline in fertility rates across the globe started in the west to spread right to. All developing countries as well. And so what we -- about now is that. Most the models ...
Baby Blues in Europe as Birth Rate Declines
Yahoo! Finance - 5/21/2013 10:36:06 AM
The report entitled "Towards a 'Baby Recession' in Europe?" carried out by Eurostat, a statistical body of the European Commission, investigated fertility trends in 31 European countries since the start of the region's economic crisis in 2008 ...
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 ... of television ownership in the country is very similar to the fertility map.
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 ...
US surpasses other industrialized countries in infant death rate
World Socialist Web Site - 5/9/2013 3:36:40 PM
The US has by far the highest first-day death rate in the industrialized ... all other industrialized countries combined.” The 33 other industrialized countries for which data was collected recorded a combined total of 7,500 first-day deaths ...
World’s Biggest Volatility Jump Spurs Fund Outflow
Bloomberg - 5/20/2013 5:58:07 AM
Investors are starting to flee what used to be the slowest-moving major debt market after Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s stimulus caused price swings to increase by the most in the world this year. Price volatility for Japanese ...
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 ...
Developing world to dominate investment
Yahoo! News - 5/18/2013 6:10:38 PM
According to new scenarios released Thursday by the World Bank, developing countries could control some $158tn (at 2010 rates) by 2030 ... illicit outflows of capital that are at times far greater than the countries’ external debt, inexorably impacting ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Stop world population growth or face global collapse
examiner.com - 5/9/2013 7:40:03 PM
Chapter 2, titled the Ecology of Population Growth, outlines the exponential growth to 9.3 billion people on the planet by the year 2050. That is an additional 2.3 billion people needing to be fed. This population growth causes human demand to exceed the ...
Canada has second-highest rate of first-day infant deaths in industrialized world: report
canada.com - 5/7/2013 6:52:18 PM
In a 2012 report on infant mortality, the Conference Board of Canada also suggested advancements in fertility ... total, adding most of the countries with high numbers are located in subsaharan Africa. Somalia had the highest first-day mortality rate ...
