Fertility rate in 2017 hits all-time low

The total fertility rate of the country’s population declined for the seventh consecutive year in 2017, reports the Statistics Finland.

At the2017 fertility rate, a woman would give birth to an average of 1.49 children, which is an all-time low. The number of children born in 2017 was 50,321.

The fertility rate is assesses by calculating the proportion of births to the number women of childbearing age.

The fertility rate indicates how many children a woman would have given birth during her lifetime, if the fertility rates remained the same as in the base year of the calculation.

After 2017, the fertility rate was the second lowest in 1973 standing at 1.50 children per woman, and in 2016, it was 1.57. Since 1969, the total fertility rate has been below the replacement level, which is 2.1 children per woman.

Compared to the year before, the total fertility rate last year went down for women of nearly all ages, most clearly for those aged below 30.

In 2017, women who gave birth to their first child were, on average, 29.2 years of age. In 2016, the average age of first-time mothers was 29.1 years, and in the last 10 years it has posted a mere 1.0-year rise.

Correspondingly, the average age of all women that gave birth last year went up by 0.1 year from that in the year before to 30.9 years. The average age of mothers had rise by just 0.8 years over the last decade.