Many mothers, or large families?
Total fertility rate = period maternal rate × children per mother. The maternal rate is one year's first-birth schedule, not the share of a generation that eventually has a child. Two countries with the same TFR can get there in opposite ways.
▸Labelled on the chart: 23 · click any dot to add or remove it
Hover for figures. Click a point — or use Add country / Add group — to pin or unpin its label. Diamonds are within-country groups.
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How the split is calculated, and what it is not
The vertical axis is a period rate for one recent year, not the share of a generation that ever has a child. OECD Society at a Glance 2024, Figure 1.3, counts a finished generation: of women born in 1975, 89.7% in the United States, 88.6% in Norway and 76.1% in Spain had a child. The US period rate for 2023 is 63.4%: women postponing a first birth pull it down even when most of a cohort still become mothers.
The total fertility rate (TFR) answers one question — average children per woman — by blending two independent ones together. This chart splits it back apart:
- Total Maternal Rate (TMR) — a period rate: first births per woman in one calendar year, written as a percent. It is not the share of a cohort that eventually becomes mothers.
- Children per Mother (CPM) — the average family size among mothers, i.e. TFR ÷ TMR.
Both are derived from the same published input — each series' first births as a share of all births of known order in one calendar year — so the identity TFR = TMR × CPM always holds exactly. Like the TFR itself, TMR and CPM are period measures: they describe one year's age-specific birth rates, not the eventual family size of any real cohort of women. A country where childbearing is being postponed — South Korea is the sharpest example in this dataset — can show a temporarily depressed TMR even if most women there will eventually have a child. Figures are the latest available per country (mostly 2023–2024) and are not perfectly harmonised: birth-order reporting conventions vary slightly by statistical office.
Within-country points use the same identity on official subgroup tables. US race and Hispanic-origin groups are NCHS 2023 categories (non-Hispanic single race, plus Hispanic of any race). They are not comparable to Denmark-style ancestry or to country-of-birth series elsewhere — only a handful of offices publish both a TFR and births by live-birth order for the same groups, which is what this scatter requires.
All figures: 51 countries and 6 US groups
| Country | TFR | Total maternal rate ↓ | Children per mother |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇧🇬Bulgaria | 1.72 | 84.6% | 2.03 |
| 🇮🇱Israel | 2.89 | 83.2% | 3.47 |
| 🇦🇿Azerbaijan | 1.81 | 82.7% | 2.19 |
| 🇵🇹Portugal | 1.41 | 77.0% | 1.83 |
| 🇷🇸Serbia | 1.64 | 74.0% | 2.22 |
| 🇦🇺Australia | 1.50 | 72.0% | 2.08 |
| 🇬🇧United Kingdom | 1.68 | 71.7% | 2.34 |
| 🇫🇷France | 1.61 | 70.7% | 2.28 |
| 🇸🇮Slovenia | 1.52 | 70.4% | 2.16 |
| 🇱🇺Luxembourg | 1.25 | 67.4% | 1.85 |
| 🇷🇴Romania | 1.39 | 67.4% | 2.06 |
| 🇭🇷Croatia | 1.46 | 66.6% | 2.19 |
| 🇨🇾Cyprus | 1.38 | 66.4% | 2.08 |
| 🇳🇱Netherlands | 1.43 | 66.2% | 2.16 |
| 🇩🇰Denmark | 1.47 | 65.6% | 2.24 |
| 🇧🇪Belgium | 1.44 | 65.5% | 2.20 |
| 🇦🇱Albania | 1.64 | 65.4% | 2.51 |
| 🇭🇺Hungary | 1.41 | 63.7% | 2.21 |
| 🇺🇸United States | 1.62 | 63.4% | 2.56 |
| 🇩🇪Germany | 1.36 | 63.2% | 2.15 |
| 🇨🇭Switzerland | 1.29 | 63.0% | 2.05 |
| 🇳🇴Norway | 1.45 | 62.9% | 2.30 |
| 🇦🇹Austria | 1.31 | 62.4% | 2.10 |
| 🇸🇪Sweden | 1.43 | 62.3% | 2.29 |
| 🇨🇿Czechia | 1.36 | 62.2% | 2.19 |
| 🇹🇷Turkey | 1.48 | 62.2% | 2.38 |
| 🇮🇪Ireland | 1.47 | 62.0% | 2.37 |
| 🇮🇸Iceland | 1.56 | 61.9% | 2.52 |
| 🇬🇪Georgia | 1.69 | 61.5% | 2.75 |
| 🇲🇰North Macedonia | 1.44 | 61.5% | 2.34 |
| 🇦🇲Armenia | 1.60 | 60.8% | 2.63 |
| 🇸🇰Slovakia | 1.46 | 60.2% | 2.43 |
| 🇬🇷Greece | 1.24 | 59.6% | 2.08 |
| 🇮🇹Italy | 1.18 | 57.9% | 2.04 |
| 🇧🇾Belarus | 1.45 | 56.8% | 2.55 |
| 🇨🇱Chile | 1.30 | 56.8% | 2.29 |
| 🇨🇦Canada | 1.26 | 56.5% | 2.23 |
| 🇲🇩Moldova | 1.62 | 56.5% | 2.87 |
| 🇯🇵Japan | 1.20 | 55.9% | 2.15 |
| 🇪🇸Spain | 1.10 | 55.8% | 1.97 |
| 🇲🇹Malta | 1.01 | 54.4% | 1.85 |
| 🇫🇮Finland | 1.25 | 54.1% | 2.31 |
| 🇷🇺Russia | 1.41 | 53.3% | 2.65 |
| 🇱🇹Lithuania | 1.11 | 52.8% | 2.10 |
| 🇺🇦Ukraine | 1.14 | 52.4% | 2.17 |
| 🇵🇱Poland | 1.14 | 52.3% | 2.18 |
| 🇱🇻Latvia | 1.24 | 49.5% | 2.51 |
| 🇪🇪Estonia | 1.18 | 48.6% | 2.43 |
| 🇹🇼Taiwan | 0.87 | 46.5% | 1.87 |
| 🇸🇬Singapore | 0.97 | 45.4% | 2.14 |
| 🇰🇷South Korea | 0.72 | 43.3% | 1.66 |
US race and Hispanic origin: NCHS Births, Final Data for 2023 (Tables 2 and 3). Non-Hispanic groups are single race.
| Group | TFR | Total maternal rate ↓ | Children per mother |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸US · Hispanic | 1.95 | 73.0% | 2.67 |
| 🇺🇸US · Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander | 2.22 | 63.7% | 3.48 |
| 🇺🇸US · White | 1.53 | 61.9% | 2.48 |
| 🇺🇸US · Asian | 1.31 | 60.6% | 2.16 |
| 🇺🇸US · Black | 1.58 | 55.5% | 2.85 |
| 🇺🇸US · American Indian / Alaska Native | 1.41 | 45.9% | 3.08 |
- Malawi0.8%
- Rwanda0.8%
- Zambia0.9%
- Tanzania1.1%
- Ethiopia1.2%
- Uganda1.2%
- Kenya1.3%
- Bangladesh1.5%
- Mali1.8%
- India2.0%
- Haiti2.1%
- Nepal2.1%
- Nigeria2.1%
- Senegal2.4%
- Ghana2.6%
- Philippines3.5%
Latest survey in each country. Bar length is childlessness at ages 40–44. The longest bar is 3.5%.
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Every survey round (63), with confidence intervals
Women married at least five years. Confidence intervals are 95%. N is the weighted number of women in the denominator.
| Country ↑ | Survey | Age 20–49 | Age 40–44 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bangladesh | 1999-2000 | 2.0% | 1.9% |
| Bangladesh | 2004 | 2.0% | 1.6% |
| Bangladesh | 2011 | 2.1% | 1.5% |
| Bangladesh | 2017-18 | 2.4% | 1.5% |
| Ethiopia | 2000 | 2.9% | 1.6% |
| Ethiopia | 2005 | 1.5% | 2.3% |
| Ethiopia | 2011 | 2.6% | 1.6% |
| Ethiopia | 2016 | 2.1% | 1.2% |
| Ghana | 1998 | 2.9% | 0.6% |
| Ghana | 2003 | 2.5% | 1.8% |
| Ghana | 2008 | 2.2% | 2.3% |
| Ghana | 2014 | 2.4% | 2.6% |
| Haiti | 2000 | 2.9% | 1.7% |
| Haiti | 2005-06 | 5.5% | 3.5% |
| Haiti | 2012 | 4.3% | 3.2% |
| Haiti | 2016-17 | 2.4% | 2.1% |
| India | 1998-99 | 3.1% | 2.0% |
| India | 2005-06 | 3.0% | 1.8% |
| India | 2015-16 | 3.1% | 2.0% |
| Kenya | 1998 | 1.1% | 1.5% |
| Kenya | 2003 | 1.3% | 0.9% |
| Kenya | 2008-09 | 0.8% | 1.7% |
| Kenya | 2014 | 0.8% | 1.3% |
| Malawi | 2000 | 1.8% | 1.6% |
| Malawi | 2004 | 1.1% | 1.1% |
| Malawi | 2010 | 1.0% | 1.0% |
| Malawi | 2015-16 | 0.7% | 0.8% |
| Mali | 2001 | 3.1% | 2.3% |
| Mali | 2006 | 3.5% | 2.3% |
| Mali | 2012-13 | 2.2% | 2.9% |
| Mali | 2018 | 2.3% | 1.8% |
| Nepal | 2001 | 2.0% | 1.2% |
| Nepal | 2006 | 1.6% | 2.2% |
| Nepal | 2011 | 2.1% | 1.5% |
| Nepal | 2016 | 2.5% | 2.1% |
| Nigeria | 2003 | 2.9% | 5.1% |
| Nigeria | 2008 | 2.3% | 2.1% |
| Nigeria | 2013 | 2.2% | 2.6% |
| Nigeria | 2018 | 2.0% | 2.1% |
| Philippines | 1998 | 2.0% | 1.4% |
| Philippines | 2003 | 3.0% | 1.7% |
| Philippines | 2013 | 3.2% | 2.7% |
| Philippines | 2017 | 3.6% | 3.5% |
| Rwanda | 2000 | 1.4% | 0.8% |
| Rwanda | 2005 | 0.9% | 1.2% |
| Rwanda | 2010 | 1.1% | 1.1% |
| Rwanda | 2014-15 | 0.9% | 0.8% |
| Senegal | 1997 | 2.4% | 2.1% |
| Senegal | 2005 | 3.9% | 2.0% |
| Senegal | 2012-13 | 2.5% | 0.8% |
| Senegal | 2018 | 3.9% | 2.4% |
| Tanzania | 1999 | 2.6% | 2.0% |
| Tanzania | 2004-05 | 1.9% | 1.3% |
| Tanzania | 2010 | 1.7% | 1.4% |
| Tanzania | 2015-16 | 1.2% | 1.1% |
| Uganda | 2000-01 | 2.4% | 3.6% |
| Uganda | 2006 | 1.6% | 2.1% |
| Uganda | 2011 | 1.0% | 0.7% |
| Uganda | 2016 | 0.9% | 1.2% |
| Zambia | 2001-02 | 2.0% | 1.5% |
| Zambia | 2007 | 1.6% | 2.8% |
| Zambia | 2013-14 | 1.0% | 1.1% |
| Zambia | 2018 | 0.8% | 0.9% |