Richard Marles questioned on declining birthrate data Richard Marles was also asked about new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing a declining birthrate. As we reported in yesterday’s blog, in 2023 there were 286,998 births registered in Australia, with a total fertility rate of 1.50 babies per woman. The total fertility rate has slowly dropped from 1.86 in 1993.
The decline is most prominent among women aged 15 to 19, the ABS said, while the age-specific fertility rate of women aged 40 to 44 years has almost doubled in 30 years. Responding to the figures, Marles said this is why “we are focused on the sorts of costs of living pressures that impact families, so that we can do what we can to make it more affordable for people to raise a family”.