
Total fertility rate of Canada 1860-2020
The fertility rate of a country is the average number of children that women from that country will have throughout their reproductive years. In 1860, Canadian women of childbearing age would go on to have 5.7 children on average, however this number dropped significantly by 1925, where it was just 3.3. It then plateaued in the late 1920s, before dropping again, to 2.7 in 1940. Similarly to the United States, Canada experienced a large baby boom after the Second World War, rising to 3.9 in 1960, before declining again into the 1980s, and then plateauing between 1.5 and 1.7 until today. Canada's fertility rate is expected to be 1.5 children per woman in 2020.