Fertility rate

Children a woman would have at the birth rates of that year.

measured by: World Bank
originally from: UN Population Division, World Population Prospects
years covered: 1960–2024
subject: Society

Neither end of this scale is better. It is context, not a score.

How this is measured

Like life expectancy this is synthetic: children a woman would bear if she lived through her childbearing years at the age-specific rates observed this year. Roughly 2.1 is the level at which a population replaces itself without migration. Neither end is better, and treating it as a score would be the site taking a side.

Highest first for 2024

170 countries and territories have a figure for 2024. This is the most recent year the series covers well; the viewer holds every year from 1960.

#	Country	Region	Fertility
1	Chad	Sub-Saharan Africa	6.03
2	Somalia	Sub-Saharan Africa	6.01
3	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Sub-Saharan Africa	5.98
4	Central African Republic	Sub-Saharan Africa	5.95
5	Niger	Sub-Saharan Africa	5.94
6	Mali	Sub-Saharan Africa	5.51
7	Angola	Sub-Saharan Africa	5.05
8	Burundi	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.79
9	Afghanistan	Asia-Pacific	4.76
10	Mozambique	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.69
11	Mauritania	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.63
12	Tanzania	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.54
13	Yemen	Middle East & North Africa	4.50
14	Benin	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.48
15	Nigeria	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.38
16	Sudan	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.26
17	Cameroon	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.26
18	Côte d'Ivoire	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.23
19	Uganda	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.17
20	Guinea	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.13
21	Togo	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.12
22	Equatorial Guinea	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.12
23	Burkina Faso	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.11
24	Congo	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.11
25	Zambia	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.04
26	Madagascar	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.91
27	Ethiopia	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.91
28	Gambia	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.91
29	Liberia	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.86
30	South Sudan	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.79
31	Senegal	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.77
32	Guinea-Bissau	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.76
33	Sierra Leone	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.70
34	Eritrea	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.68
35	Zimbabwe	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.67
36	Rwanda	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.65
37	Gabon	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.59
38	Malawi	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.59
39	Vanuatu	Asia-Pacific	3.57
40	Pakistan	Asia-Pacific	3.55
41	Solomon Islands	Asia-Pacific	3.51
42	Uzbekistan	Eurasia	3.49
43	Ghana	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.34
44	Palestine	Middle East & North Africa	3.25
45	Iraq	Middle East & North Africa	3.22
46	Namibia	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.21
47	Kenya	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.17
48	Papua New Guinea	Asia-Pacific	3.07
49	Tajikistan	Eurasia	3.04
50	Kazakhstan	Eurasia	2.98
51	Israel	Middle East & North Africa	2.87
52	Egypt	Middle East & North Africa	2.74
53	Algeria	Middle East & North Africa	2.72
54	Eswatini	Sub-Saharan Africa	2.72
55	Botswana	Sub-Saharan Africa	2.70
56	Syria	Middle East & North Africa	2.70
57	Lesotho	Sub-Saharan Africa	2.66
58	Turkmenistan	Eurasia	2.66
59	Timor-Leste	Asia-Pacific	2.63
60	Haiti	Americas	2.63
61	Djibouti	Sub-Saharan Africa	2.62
62	Jordan	Middle East & North Africa	2.60
63	Kyrgyzstan	Eurasia	2.60
64	Cambodia	Asia-Pacific	2.55
65	Bolivia	Americas	2.52
66	Oman	Middle East & North Africa	2.51
67	Mongolia	Asia-Pacific	2.50
68	Honduras	Americas	2.48
69	Paraguay	Americas	2.42
70	Laos	Asia-Pacific	2.40
71	Guyana	Americas	2.40
72	Saudi Arabia	Middle East & North Africa	2.31
73	Libya	Middle East & North Africa	2.30
74	Guatemala	Americas	2.29
75	Fiji	Asia-Pacific	2.27
76	Suriname	Americas	2.23
77	Lebanon	Middle East & North Africa	2.23
78	Dominican Republic	Americas	2.22
79	Morocco	Middle East & North Africa	2.21
80	Nicaragua	Americas	2.21
81	South Africa	Sub-Saharan Africa	2.21
82	Bangladesh	Asia-Pacific	2.14
83	Indonesia	Asia-Pacific	2.12
84	Panama	Americas	2.11
85	Myanmar	Asia-Pacific	2.10
86	Venezuela	Americas	2.08
87	Belize	Americas	2.02
88	Peru	Americas	1.97
89	New Caledonia	Asia-Pacific	1.96
90	India	Asia-Pacific	1.96
91	Nepal	Asia-Pacific	1.96
92	Sri Lanka	Asia-Pacific	1.95
93	Vietnam	Asia-Pacific	1.90
94	Philippines	Asia-Pacific	1.89
95	Mexico	Americas	1.89
96	Tunisia	Middle East & North Africa	1.82
97	Ecuador	Americas	1.81
98	Georgia	Eurasia	1.80
99	Montenegro	Europe	1.80
100	North Korea	Asia-Pacific	1.78
101	El Salvador	Americas	1.77
102	Brunei	Asia-Pacific	1.73
103	Moldova	Eurasia	1.73
104	Bulgaria	Europe	1.72
105	Qatar	Middle East & North Africa	1.72
106	Greenland	Americas	1.71
107	Armenia	Eurasia	1.70
108	Iran	Middle East & North Africa	1.68
109	Serbia	Europe	1.64
110	Colombia	Americas	1.63
111	United States	Americas	1.63
112	Brazil	Americas	1.61
113	France	Europe	1.61
114	New Zealand	Asia-Pacific	1.57
115	Iceland	Europe	1.56
116	Kuwait	Middle East & North Africa	1.56
117	United Kingdom	Europe	1.55
118	Malaysia	Asia-Pacific	1.54
119	Kosovo	Europe	1.54
120	Trinidad and Tobago	Americas	1.54
121	Slovenia	Europe	1.52
122	Argentina	Americas	1.50
123	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Europe	1.49
124	Australia	Asia-Pacific	1.48
125	Turkey	Eurasia	1.48
126	Denmark	Europe	1.47
127	Ireland	Europe	1.47
128	Croatia	Europe	1.46
129	Slovakia	Europe	1.46
130	Norway	Europe	1.45
131	Bhutan	Asia-Pacific	1.45
132	Cuba	Americas	1.45
133	Belgium	Europe	1.44
134	Azerbaijan	Eurasia	1.43
135	Netherlands	Europe	1.43
136	Sweden	Europe	1.43
137	Russia	Eurasia	1.42
138	Hungary	Europe	1.41
139	Portugal	Europe	1.41
140	North Macedonia	Europe	1.40
141	Uruguay	Americas	1.40
142	Romania	Europe	1.39
143	Cyprus	Europe	1.38
144	Bahamas	Americas	1.37
145	Czechia	Europe	1.36
146	Germany	Europe	1.36
147	Jamaica	Americas	1.35
148	Albania	Europe	1.34
149	Costa Rica	Americas	1.32
150	Austria	Europe	1.31
151	Switzerland	Europe	1.29
152	Canada	Americas	1.25
153	Finland	Europe	1.25
154	Luxembourg	Europe	1.25
155	Greece	Europe	1.24
156	Latvia	Europe	1.24
157	Belarus	Eurasia	1.22
158	United Arab Emirates	Middle East & North Africa	1.21
159	Thailand	Asia-Pacific	1.20
160	Estonia	Europe	1.18
161	Italy	Europe	1.18
162	Japan	Asia-Pacific	1.15
163	Chile	Americas	1.14
164	Poland	Europe	1.14
165	Lithuania	Europe	1.11
166	Spain	Europe	1.10
167	China	Asia-Pacific	1.01
168	Ukraine	Eurasia	0.99
169	Puerto Rico	Americas	0.92
170	South Korea	Asia-Pacific	0.75

Data by year

Show 65 yearly JSON rankings

Follow a year link to open the complete world ranking, including country names, values, positions, source and licence.

Source and licence

World Bank — World Development Indicators

CC BY 4.0. World Bank, World Development Indicators How every source was checked

Other society statistics

Human Development Index Life expectancy Adult literacy Secondary school enrolment Government spending on education Health spending Health costs paid out of pocket Maternal mortality Women in parliament Women in the workforce Urban population Refugees who left Population