Demographic trends: birth rate

What is birth rate?

• The number of live births per 1000 of the population over a year.

What is fertility rate?

• The number of live births per 1000 women, aged 15-44 over a year.

What is the total fertility rate?

• The average number of children women will have during their fertile years.

What are the trends in fertility rates?

• UK fertility and total fertility rates have both generally declined.

  • Have fluctuated during baby booms and are recently experiencing an increase.

• In 1900, the fertility rate was 115 live births per 1000 women aged 15-44, compared with only 63.6 in 2009. This figure has been on the rise over the last decade as in 2001 the fertility rate stood at 54.5.

• In 2008, total fertility rate reached 1.96 per woman, but this has since declined to 1.83 in 2014.

• Recent rise could be explained by a rise in immigrant families in the UK, who tend to marry younger and therefore have longer periods of fertility and larger families.

What about the birth rate trends?

• The UK population has grown from 38 million in 1901 to 64 million in 2014.

• The trend has shown:

  • A general decline since 1900 – the birth rate was 28.7 births per 1000 in 1900 compared to 12.2 births per 1000 in 2014.

  • Fluctuations during the ‘baby booms’ after the First and Second World Wars, in the 1950/60s and late 1980s.

  • Since 2001, the birth rate has slightly risen again, reaching its highest rate since 1971 in 2012.

What about live births: UK 1900-2014?