WWII: fertility rates in select Allied countries 1939-1950

Between 1939 and 1950, the Soviet Union's fertility rate underwent the most drastic change of all the major Allied Powers; falling from 4.9 births per woman in 1939 to just 1.7 births in 1943. In Russia alone, this decline was even greater, falling from 4.9 to 1.3 births in the same time period. After the war's conclusion in 1945, there was an observable increase in fertility in all the given countries, and this marked beginning of the global baby boom of the mid-twentieth century.

Annual fertility rates in select Allied countries during and after the Second World War between 1939 and 1950

Characteristic	Soviet Union	Soviet Russia	England & Wales	United States	France	Czechoslovakia
1950	3.1	2.9	2.2	3	3	3
1949	3.3	3.2	2.3	3	3	2.9
1948	2.8	2.6	2.4	3	3	3
1947	3.3	2.9	2.7	3.2	3	3.1
1946	3.2	2.8	2.5	2.8	3	3.2
1945	1.9	1.7	2	2.4	2.3	2.8
1944	1.8	1.4	2.2	2.4	2.2	2.8
1943	1.7	1.3	2	2.6	2.2	2.8
1942	2.5	2.1	1.9	2.5	2	2.5
1941	3.9	3.7	1.7	2.2	1.8	2.6
1940	4.5	4.3	1.8	2.1	2	2.6
1939	4.9	4.9	1.8	2.1	2.2	2.3

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Release date

2015

More information

Region

Czechia, France, Russia, United States, United Kingdom (Great Britain)

Survey time period

1939 to 1950

Supplementary notes

The fertility rate is the number of children a woman of childbearing age would expect to have over the course of her lifetime, were the circumstances of that year to remain constant.

An additional figure for Poland gives a fertility rate of 3.7 births per woman in 1950.

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