One day remains the most popular for births as fertility rate hits record low

292,318 births were registered in 2024, up slightly from 286,998 in 2023, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data released on October 15.

946 babies were born on March 28, making it the busiest birthday of the year.

But the national total fertility rate dropped to 1.481 babies per woman. In 2023, it was marginally higher at 1.499.

This compares to 2014, when the fertility rate was 1.795.

The 2024 rate is the lowest total fertility rate since records began in 1929.

The total fertility rate required for replacement is considered to be around 2.1 babies per woman to replace herself and her partner in the absence of overseas migration.

One state bucked the trend, according to the ABS data.

Victoria's birth rate increased by almost 13 per cent in 2024.

But ABS head of demography statistics Beidar Cho cautioned against reading too much into that figure.

"Much of these changes reflects changes in administrative processing times rather than actual birth trends," she said.

Outside of Victoria, the Northern Territory recorded the largest proportional increase in births (6.2 per cent).

South Australia had the least proportional change (-0.2 per cent).

Local government areas in NSW and Queensland had the highest total fertility rates. The top five were Cherbourg, Queensland (3.99), Coonamble, NSW (3.48), Doomadgee, Qld (3.40), Gilgandra, NSW (3.36) and Warren, NSW (3.24).

Palm Island, Queensland, experienced the largest increases between 2023 and 2024, up 0.72, followed by the NSW LGAs of Hay, up 0.48, Walgett, up 0.36 and Bourke, up 0.35.

The inner city LGAs of Melbourne (0.54), Adelaide (0.57) and Sydney (0.73) recorded the lowest rates in the country.

While the total fertility rate declined across all classifications of remoteness areas, regional and remote areas experienced a smaller drop overall and remained, on average, 0.45 points above the major cities.

The median age was 32.1 years for mothers and 33.9 years for fathers.

Ms Cho said the decline in the birth rate was not unique to Australia.

"Similar nations show a similar trend towards lower fertility rates," she said.

Research by the e61 Institute found that Australia's falling fertility rate was driven mainly by parents having fewer children, rather than more people remaining childless.

Census data from 2006 to 2021 showed that two-thirds of the decline came from smaller family sizes, while one-third was due to an increase in women not having children at all.

"The rise in childlessness played a role, but the main factor was parents choosing to have fewer children," said e61 research manager Dr Pelin Akyol.

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