In the year 2012, the world had a total fertility rate of 2.61 (births per woman).
The country with the highest total fertility rate was 🇳🇪Niger, with a rate of 7.53 births per woman. Closely followed by 🇸🇴Somalia with a total fertility rate of 7.21, and 🇹🇩Chad with 6.91 children born per woman.
The country with the lowest annual fertility rate was 🇻🇦Holy See with only 1 births per woman. Followed by 🇸🇬Singapore with a total fertility rate of 1.03, and 🇻🇬British Virgin Islands with 1.1 children born per woman.
The geographic region with the highest total fertility was Africa with a rate of 4.8 births per woman. Closely followed by Oceania with a total fertility rate of 2.48, and Asia with 2.33 children born per woman.
When devided into sub-subregions we can see that Middle Africa had the highest total fertility rate of 6.12 people. Closely followed by Western Africa with a total fertility rate of 5.6, and Eastern Africa with 4.96 children born per woman.
If we devide the global population into income groups we can see that Low-income countries had the highest total fertility rate of 5.24. While the lowest fertility rate is recorded by High-income countries with a TFR of only 1.69
| Rank | Location | Total Fertility Rate (births per woman) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Africa | 4.796 |
| 2 | Oceania | 2.4849 |
| 3 | Asia | 2.331 |
| 4 | Latin America and the Caribbean | 2.1346 |
| 5 | Americas | 2.0472 |
| 6 | Northern America | 1.8399 |
| 7 | Europe | 1.6125 |
| Rank | Location | Total Fertility Rate (births per woman) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle Africa | 6.12 |
| 2 | Western Africa | 5.6049 |
| 3 | Eastern Africa | 4.9555 |
| 4 | Melanesia | 3.6372 |
| 5 | Northern Africa | 3.3773 |
| 6 | Micronesia | 3.2997 |
| 7 | Polynesia | 3.0547 |
| 8 | Western Asia | 2.9705 |
| 9 | Central Asia | 2.6837 |
| 10 | Southern Asia | 2.6426 |
| 11 | Southern Africa | 2.5531 |
| 12 | Central America | 2.4059 |
| 13 | South-Eastern Asia | 2.3863 |
| 14 | Caribbean | 2.2723 |
| 15 | South America | 2.0056 |
| 16 | Australia/New Zealand | 1.9566 |
| 17 | Northern Europe | 1.8691 |
| 18 | Eastern Asia | 1.7677 |
| 19 | Western Europe | 1.659 |
| 20 | Eastern Europe | 1.5895 |
| 21 | Southern Europe | 1.4094 |
| Rank | Location | Total Fertility Rate (births per woman) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Low-income countries | 5.2401 |
| 2 | Low-and-Lower-middle-income countries | 3.3264 |
| 3 | Lower-middle-income countries | 2.9959 |
| 4 | Low-and-middle-income countries | 2.7457 |
| 5 | Middle-income countries | 2.524 |
| 6 | No income group available | 2.3812 |
| 7 | Upper-middle-income countries | 2.0087 |
| 8 | High-and-upper-middle-income countries | 1.9325 |
| 9 | High-income countries | 1.6916 |
Data found on this page is based on the medium fertility variant of the United Nations Revision of World Population Prospects 2024.
Data Published: 2024-07-11Source data made available by UN Revision of World Population Prospects 2024 under CC BY 3.0 IGO.
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