Australian birth rate falls to lowest level
Australia’s birth rate has fallen to its lowest level in more than 10 years, government data has revealed.
According to a report published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) on Friday, the rate of women giving birth in Australia has gradually fallen, from 66 per 1,000 in 2007 to 56 per 1,000 in 2020.
The AIHW report captures data from the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia and shows that the number of babies born declined by around 7,100 (2.3 percent) between 2019 and 2020.
The average age of all mothers who gave birth in 2020 was 30.9 years, up from 30.0 years in 2010.There is a higher proportion of mothers aged 40 and over (4.5 percent in 2020 compared with 4.1 percent in 2010), the report said.
