Birth rate


Birth rate, also known as natality and the crude birth rate, is the total number of live human births per 1,000 population for a given period divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registration system for births, or population counts from a census. The birth rate is used to calculate population growth. The estimated average population may be taken as the mid-year population.
When the crude death rate is subtracted from the crude birth rate, the result is the rate of natural increase. This is equal to the rate of population change.
The total birth rate —typically indicated as births per 1,000 population—is distinguished from a set of age-specific rates. The first known use of the term "birth rate" in English was in 1856.
YearsCBRYearsCBR
1950–195536.92000–200521.0
1955–196035.42005–201020.3
1960–196535.22010–201519.5
1965–197034.02015–202018.5
1970–197531.42020–202517.5
1975–198028.52025–203016.6
1980–198527.72030–203516.0
1985–199027.42035–204015.5
1990–199524.22040–204515.0
1995–200022.22045–205014.6

The average global birth rate was 17 births per 1,000 total population in 2024. The death rate was 7.9 per 1,000. The RNI was thus 0.91 percent.
In 2012, the average global birth rate was 19.611 per 1,000 according to the World Bank and 19.15 births per 1,000 total population according to the CIA, compared to 20.09 per 1,000 total population in 2007. Birth rates ranging from 10 to 20 births per 1,000 are considered low, while rates from 40 to 50 births per 1,000 are considered high.
The 2024 average of 17 births per 1,000 total population equates to approximately 4.3 births per second or about 260 births per minute for the world. On average, two people in the world die every second or about 121 per minute.

In politics

The birth rate is an issue of concern and policy for national governments. Some seek to increase the birth rate with financial incentives or provision of support services to new mothers. Conversely, other countries have policies to reduce the birth rate. Policies to increase the crude birth rate are known as pro-natalist policies, and policies to reduce the crude birth rate are known as anti-natalist policies. Non-coercive measures such as improved information on birth control and its availability have achieved good results in countries such as Iran and Bangladesh.
There has also been discussion on whether bringing women into the forefront of development initiatives will lead to a decline in birth rates. In some countries, government policies have focused on reducing birth rates by improving women's rights, sexual and reproductive health. Typically, high birth rates are associated with health problems, low life expectancy, low living standards, low social status for women and low educational levels. Demographic transition theory postulates that as a country undergoes economic development and social change its population growth declines, with birth rates serving as an indicator.
At the 1974 World Population Conference in Bucharest, Romania, women's issues gained considerable attention. Family programs were discussed, and 137 countries drafted a World Population Plan of Action. As part of the discussion, many countries accepted modern birth control methods such as the birth control pill and the condom while opposing abortion. Population concerns, as well as the desire to include women in the discourse, were discussed; it was agreed that improvements in women's status and initiatives in defense of reproductive health and freedom, the environment, and sustainable socioeconomic development were needed.

Population control

In the 20th century, several authoritarian governments sought either to increase or to decrease the birth rates, sometimes through forceful intervention. One of the most notorious natalist policies was that in communist Romania in 1967–1990, during the time of communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu, who adopted a very aggressive natalist policy which included outlawing abortion and contraception, routine pregnancy tests for women, taxes on childlessness, and legal discrimination against childless people. This policy has been depicted in movies and documentaries. These policies temporarily increased birth rates for a few years, but this was followed by a decline due to the increased use of illegal abortion. Ceaușescu's policy resulted in over 9,000 deaths of women due to illegal abortions, large numbers of children put into Romanian orphanages by parents who could not cope with raising them, street children in the 1990s, and overcrowding in homes and schools. Ultimately, this aggressive natalist policy led to a generation who eventually led the Romanian Revolution which overthrew and executed him.
In stark contrast to Ceaușescu's natalist policy was China's one child policy, in effect from 1978 to 2015, which included abuses such as forced abortions. This policy has also been deemed responsible for the common practice of sex-selective abortion which led to an imbalanced sex ratio in the country. Given strict family size limitations and a preference for sons, girls became unwanted in China because they were considered as depriving the parents of the chance of having a son. With the progress of prenatal sex-determination technologies and induced abortion, the one-child policy gradually turned into a one-son policy.
In many countries, the steady decline in birth rates over the past decades can largely be attributed to access to contraception, equal access to education, and increased socioeconomic opportunities, as well as women of all economic, social, religious and educational persuasions are choosing to have fewer children.
In Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world, women are less likely to have two children than they were before 1999, according to Australian demographer Jack Caldwell. Bangladeshi women eagerly took up contraceptives, such as condoms and the pill, according to a study in 1994 by the World Bank. The study proved that family planning could be carried out and accepted practically anywhere. Caldwell also believes that agricultural improvements led to the need for less labour. Children not needed to plough the fields would be of surplus and require some education, so in turn, families become smaller and women are able to work and have greater ambitions. Other examples of non-coercive family planning policies are Ethiopia, Thailand and Indonesia.
Myanmar was controlled until 2011 by an austere military junta, intent on controlling every aspect of people's lives. The generals wanted the country's population doubled. In their view, women's job was to produce babies to power the country's labour force, so family planning was vehemently opposed. The women of Burma opposed this policy, and Peter McDonald of the Australian National University argues that this gave rise to a black market trade in contraceptives, smuggled in from neighbouring Thailand.
In 1990, five years after the Iraq-Iran war ended, Iran saw the fastest recorded fall in fertility in world history. Revolution gave way to consumerism and westernization. With TVs and cars came condoms and birth control pills. A generation of women had been expected to produce soldiers to fight Iraq, but the next generation of women could choose to enjoy some newfound luxuries. During the war, the women of Iran averaged about 8 children each, a ratio the hard-line Islamic President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wanted to revive. As of 2010, the birth rate of Iran is 1.7 babies per woman. Some observers claim this to be a triumph of Western values of freedom for women against states with Islamic values.
Islamic clerics are also having less influence over women in other Muslim countries. In the past 30 years Turkey's fertility rate of children per woman has dropped from 4.07 to 2.08. Tunisia has dropped from 4.82 to 2.14 and Morocco from 5.4 to 2.52 children per woman.
Latin America, of predominately Catholic faith, has seen the same trends of falling fertility rates. Brazilian women are having half the children compared to 25 years ago: a rate of 1.7 children per woman. The Vatican now has less influence over women in other hard-line Catholic countries. Mexico, El Salvador, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru have all seen significant drops in fertility in the same period, all going from over six to less than three children per woman. Forty percent of married Brazilian women are choosing to get sterilised after having children. Some observers claim this to be a triumph of modern Western values of freedom for women against states with Catholic values.

National birth rates

According to the CIA's The World Factbook, who presumably get their figures from the World Health Organization, the country with the highest birth rate is Niger at 6.49 children born per woman and the country with the lowest birth rate is Taiwan, at 1.13 children born per woman. However, despite not having any official records, it can be presumed for obvious reasons that the Holy See has the lowest birth rate of any sovereign state.
Compared with the 1950s, as of 2011, the world birth rate has declined by 16 per thousand.
As of 2017, Niger has had 49.443 births per thousand people.
Japan has one of the lowest birth rates in the world with 8 per thousand people.
While in Japan there are 126 million people and in Niger 21 million, both countries had around 1 million babies born in 2016.