section_path: Attitudes toward children/Fertility and number of children per woman
section_name: Fertility and number of children per woman
paragraph_text: Fertility and number of children per woman
  
  Before contraception became widely available in the 20th century, women had little choice other than abstinence or having often many children. In fact, current population growth concerns have only become possible with drastically reduced child mortality and sustained fertility. In 2017 the global total fertility rate was estimated to be 2.37 children per woman, adding about 80 million people to the world population per year. In order to measure the total number of children, scientists often prefer the completed cohort fertility at age 50 years (CCF50). Although the number of children is also influenced by cultural norms, religion, peer pressure and other social factors, the CCF50 appears to be most heavily dependent on the educational level of women, ranging from 5–8 children in women without education to less than 2 in women with 12 or more years of education.