In 2025, there are six countries, all in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the average woman of childbearing age can expect to have between 5-6 children throughout their lifetime. In fact, of the 20 countries in the world with the highest fertility rates, Afghanistan and Yemen are the only countries not found in Sub-Saharan Africa. High fertility rates in Africa With a fertility rate of almost six children per woman, Chad is the country with the highest fertility rate in the world. Population growth in Chad is among the highest in the world. Lack of healthcare access, as well as food instability, political instability, and climate change, are all exacerbating conditions that keep Chad's infant mortality rates high, which is generally the driver behind high fertility rates. This situation is common across much of the continent, and, although there has been considerable progress in recent decades, development in Sub-Saharan Africa is not moving as quickly as it did in other regions. Demographic transition While these countries have the highest fertility rates in the world, their rates are all on a generally downward trajectory due to a phenomenon known as the demographic transition. The third stage (of five) of this transition sees birth rates drop in response to decreased infant and child mortality, as families no longer feel the need to compensate for lost children. Eventually, fertility rates fall below replacement level (approximately 2.1 children per woman), which eventually leads to natural population decline once life expectancy plateaus. In some of the most developed countries today, low fertility rates are creating severe econoic and societal challenges as workforces are shrinking while aging populations are placin a greater burden on both public and personal resources.

Graph and download economic data for Fertility Rate, Total for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (SPDYNTFRTINHPC) from 1960 to 2023 about fertility and rate.

Today, globally, women of childbearing age have an average of approximately 2.2 children over the course of their lifetime. In pre-industrial times, most women could expect to have somewhere between five and ten live births throughout their lifetime; however, the demographic transition then sees fertility rates fall significantly. Looking ahead, it is believed that the global fertility rate will fall below replacement level in the 2050s, which will eventually lead to population decline when life expectancy plateaus. Recent decades Between the 1950s and 1970s, the global fertility rate was roughly five children per woman - this was partly due to the post-WWII baby boom in many countries, on top of already-high rates in less-developed countries. The drop around 1960 can be attributed to China's "Great Leap Forward", where famine and disease in the world's most populous country saw the global fertility rate drop by roughly 0.5 children per woman. Between the 1970s and today, fertility rates fell consistently, although the rate of decline noticeably slowed as the baby boomer generation then began having their own children. Replacement level fertility Replacement level fertility, i.e. the number of children born per woman that a population needs for long-term stability, is approximately 2.1 children per woman. Populations may continue to grow naturally despite below-replacement level fertility, due to reduced mortality and increased life expectancy, however, these will plateau with time and then population decline will occur. It is believed that the global fertility rate will drop below replacement level in the mid-2050s, although improvements in healthcare and living standards will see population growth continue into the 2080s when the global population will then start falling.

The statistic shows the 20 countries with the lowest fertility rates in 2024. All figures are estimates. In 2024, the fertility rate in Taiwan was estimated to be at 1.11 children per woman, making it the lowest fertility rate worldwide. Fertility rate The fertility rate is the average number of children born per woman of child-bearing age in a country. Usually, a woman aged between 15 and 45 is considered to be in her child-bearing years. The fertility rate of a country provides an insight into its economic state, as well as the level of health and education of its population. Developing countries usually have a higher fertility rate due to lack of access to birth control and contraception, and to women usually foregoing a higher education, or even any education at all, in favor of taking care of housework. Many families in poorer countries also need their children to help provide for the family by starting to work early and/or as caretakers for their parents in old age. In developed countries, fertility rates and birth rates are usually much lower, as birth control is easier to obtain and women often choose a career before becoming a mother. Additionally, if the number of women of child-bearing age declines, so does the fertility rate of a country. As can be seen above, countries like Hong Kong are a good example for women leaving the patriarchal structures and focusing on their own career instead of becoming a mother at a young age, causing a decline of the country’s fertility rate. A look at the fertility rate per woman worldwide by income group also shows that women with a low income tend to have more children than those with a high income. The United States are neither among the countries with the lowest, nor among those with the highest fertility rate, by the way. At 2.08 children per woman, the fertility rate in the US has been continuously slightly below the global average of about 2.4 children per woman over the last decade.

Graph and download economic data for Fertility Rate, Total for Developing Countries in Middle East and North Africa (SPDYNTFRTINMNA) from 1960 to 2023 about North Africa, Middle East, fertility, and rate.

Fertility Rate, Total for Developing Countries in East Asia and Pacific was 1.36140 Births per Woman in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, Fertility Rate, Total for Developing Countries in East Asia and Pacific reached a record high of 6.38501 in January of 1950 and a record low of 1.36140 in January of 2023. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Fertility Rate, Total for Developing Countries in East Asia and Pacific - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on August of 2025.

The total fertility rate of the world has dropped from around 5 children per woman in 1950, to 2.2 children per woman in 2025, which means that women today are having fewer than half the number of children that women did 75 years ago. Replacement level fertility This change has come as a result of the global demographic transition, and is influenced by factors such as the significant reduction in infant and child mortality, reduced number of child marriages, increased educational and vocational opportunities for women, and the increased efficacy and availability of contraception. While this change has become synonymous with societal progress, it does have wide-reaching demographic impact - if the global average falls below replacement level (roughly 2.1 children per woman), as is expected to happen in the 2050s, then this will lead to long-term population decline on a global scale. Regional variations When broken down by continent, Africa is the only region with a fertility rate above the global average, and, alongside Oceania, it is the only region with a fertility rate above replacement level. Until the 1980s, the average woman in Africa could expect to have 6-7 children over the course of their lifetime, and there are still several countries in Africa where women can still expect to have 5 or more children in 2025. Historically, Europe has had the lowest fertility rates in the world over the past century, falling below replacement level in 1975. Europe's population has grown through a combination of migration and increasing life expectancy, however even high immigration rates could not prevent its population from going into decline in 2021.

Graph and download economic data for Fertility Rate, Total for Developing Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SPDYNTFRTINSSA) from 1960 to 2023 about Sub-Saharan Africa, fertility, and rate.

Economic growth and modernization of society are generally associated with fertility rate decreases but which forces trigger this is unclear. In this paper we assess how fertility changes with increased labor market participation of women in rural Senegal. Evidence from high-income countries suggests that higher female employment rates lead to reduced fertility rates but evidence from developing countries at an early stage of demographic transition is largely absent. We concentrate on a rural area in northern Senegal where a recent boom in horticultural exports has been associated with a sudden increase in female off-farm employment. Using survey data we show that employed women have a significantly higher age at marriage and at first childbirth, and significantly fewer children. As causal identification strategy we use instrumental variable and difference-in-differences estimations, combined with propensity score matching. We find that female employment reduces the number of children per woman by 25%, and that this fertility-reducing effect is as large for poor as for non-poor women and larger for illiterate than for literate women. Results imply that female employment is a strong instrument for empowering rural women, reducing fertility rates and accelerating the demographic transition in poor countries. The effectiveness of family planning programs can increase if targeted to areas where female employment is increasing or to female employees directly because of a higher likelihood to reach women with low-fertility preferences. Our results show that changes in fertility preferences not necessarily result from a cultural evolution but can also be driven by sudden and individual changes in economic opportunities.

Fertility Rate, Total for Developing Countries in Middle East and North Africa was 2.65003 Births per Woman in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, Fertility Rate, Total for Developing Countries in Middle East and North Africa reached a record high of 7.01168 in January of 1964 and a record low of 2.65003 in January of 2023. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Fertility Rate, Total for Developing Countries in Middle East and North Africa - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on July of 2025.

Graph and download economic data for Fertility Rate, Total for Developing Countries in East Asia and Pacific (SPDYNTFRTINEAP) from 1960 to 2023 about East Asia, Pacific, fertility, and rate.

The fertility rate in a country decreases with an increasing income level. For instance, the least developed and low-income countries had the highest fertility rates between 2000 and 2022, with 3.95 and 4.55 children per woman, respectively, as of 2022. On the other hand, high-income and upper-middle-income countries had fertility rates of *** and ****, respectively. Furthermore, fertility rates fell in all the countries worldwide, regardless of income level.

Fertility Rate, Total for Developing Countries in Latin America and Caribbean was 1.80631 Births per Woman in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, Fertility Rate, Total for Developing Countries in Latin America and Caribbean reached a record high of 5.97868 in January of 1960 and a record low of 1.80631 in January of 2023. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Fertility Rate, Total for Developing Countries in Latin America and Caribbean - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on July of 2025.

Adolescent Fertility Rate for Developing Countries in East Asia and Pacific was 15.59008 Births per 1,000 Women Ages 15-19 in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, Adolescent Fertility Rate for Developing Countries in East Asia and Pacific reached a record high of 93.04162 in January of 1952 and a record low of 15.59008 in January of 2023. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Adolescent Fertility Rate for Developing Countries in East Asia and Pacific - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on July of 2025.

Rapid population growth in developing countries in the middle of the 20th century led to fears of a population explosion and motivated the inception of what effectively became a global population-control program. The initiative, propelled in its beginnings by intellectual elites in the United States, Sweden, and some developing countries, mobilized resources to enact policies aimed at reducing fertility by widening contraception provision and changing family-size norms. In the following five decades, fertility rates fell dramatically, with a majority of countries converging to a fertility rate just above two children per woman, despite large cross-country differences in economic variables such as GDP per capita, education levels, urbanization, and female labor force participation. The fast decline in fertility rates in developing economies stands in sharp contrast with the gradual decline experienced earlier by more mature economies. In this paper, we argue that population-control policies likely played a central role in the global decline in fertility rates in recent decades and can explain some patterns of that fertility decline that are not well accounted for by other socioeconomic factors.

Graph and download economic data for Adolescent Fertility Rate for Developing Countries in East Asia and Pacific (SPADOTFRTEAP) from 1960 to 2023 about East Asia, Pacific, fertility, and rate.

Almost 80% of the 4 billion projected increase in world population by 2100 comes from 37 Mid-African Countries (MACs), caused mostly by slow declines in Total Fertility Rate (TFR). Historically, TFR has declined in response to increases in wellbeing associated with economic development. We show that, when Infant Survival Rate (ISR, a proxy for wellbeing) has increased, MAC fertility has declined at the same rate, in relation to ISR, as it did in 61 comparable Other Developing Countries (ODCs) whose average fertility is close to replacement level. If MAC ISR were to increase at the historic rate of these ODCs, and TFR declined correspondingly, then the projected world population in 2100 would be decreasing and 1.1 billion lower than currently projected. Such rates of ISR increase, and TFR decrease, are quite feasible and have occurred in comparable ODCs. Increased efforts to improve the wellbeing of poor MAC populations are key.

Adolescent Fertility Rate for Developing Countries in Middle East and North Africa was 37.71582 Births per 1,000 Women Ages 15-19 in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, Adolescent Fertility Rate for Developing Countries in Middle East and North Africa reached a record high of 140.88572 in January of 1962 and a record low of 37.71582 in January of 2023. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Adolescent Fertility Rate for Developing Countries in Middle East and North Africa - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on July of 2025.

The World Fertility Survey (WFS) was designed by the International Statistical Institute in collaboration with the United Nations (UN) and the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) in the early 1970s. The programme aimed to collect and analyse information to permit countries to “describe and interpret the fertility of their population”. The WFS was implemented with two core questionnaires: one aimed at developing countries in Africa, Asia, and South America with high fertility and low contraceptive use and another devised to be applied in developed countries in Europe and North‐America with low fertility and high contraceptive use. The micro‐data collected in the 42 developing countries and Portugal are archived and accessible through the Demographic Health Survey (https://wfs.dhsprogram.com/). The micro‐data collected in the 20 developed countries are not centrally archived. In 2020, the Generations and Gender Programme received funding from the Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) for the project "International Microdata for Reproductive Studies – promoting and facilitating the use of forgotten and underused fertility and family planning surveys". As part of this project some micro-data collected in developed countries was retraced and archived at DANS.This package contains micro-data of France, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Great Britain.Individual-level data access is provided via www.ggp-i.org

Female fertility was the highest in Yemen in 2019 at an approximate of *** births per woman, followed by Iraq and Palestine at about *** and **** births per woman respectively. In comparison, the United Arab Emirates had the lowest fertility rate of about *** births per woman in 2019. Fertility rates over time Fertility rates have been declining over the years from *** in 2010 to *** in 2018 in the Middle East and Africa region. The population of a country starts declining due to the decline in fertility rates when the fertility rate drops below the threshold of approximately ***. This effect is more prominent in countries with high child mortality rates as child survival is one of the main factors affecting fertility rates. Parents are more likely to attempt to replace lost children or have more children as insurance when experiencing early child mortality. In the MENA region, child mortality witnessed a significant decline over the past decade. Factors affecting female fertility The variation in fertility rates across countries is very evident. Developed countries have lower fertility rates between *** and ***** births per female, while developing countries have higher rates that could reach ***** births per female. Female fertility rates drop as countries develop economically. It was found that a higher income and education decreases female fertility. Increasing the employment of women also reduces female fertility as it increases their opportunity cost of bearing children.