The Ledger · Entry 19
Fewer children per woman, as childbearing becomes a choice
Average number of children born per woman worldwide
Data: Our World in Data, based on the UN World Population Prospects (2024)
For most of history women bore many children, partly because so many died young and partly because they had little means to decide otherwise. As child mortality collapsed and contraception, income, and girls' schooling spread, families across the world chose to have fewer children, and the global fertility rate roughly halved.
The key rows
The number counts births per woman, not whether each birth was wanted, so it is a marker of that shift rather than a direct measure of it. It reached 2.25 in 2023, close to the level at which a population replaces itself, and is still falling in most regions. Lower fertility reshapes societies as much as it reflects rising choice; this page tracks the trend, not its every consequence.
Asked often
Why is the global fertility rate falling?
The long decline tracks the demographic transition. As child mortality fell, fewer births were needed for children to survive, and access to contraception, rising incomes, and girls' schooling gave families the means to choose smaller families. The rate fell from 4.85 births per woman in 1950 to 2.25 in 2023.
What is the replacement fertility rate?
About 2.1 births per woman in most countries, the level at which each generation exactly replaces itself. The global rate was 2.25 in 2023, just above replacement and still falling.
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