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Baby talk - but not until 30

By Cosima Marriner
November 19, 2003

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Australian women are waiting longer than ever to have their first baby, with the typical new mother now over 30.

The median age of a woman having their first child hit 30.2 years in 2002, the highest on record, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released yesterday.

The figure reflects the gradual shift to Australia women - and others across the Western world - giving birth later in life.

After bottoming out at 25.4 years in 1971, the median age of all women giving birth has been steadily increasing.

It was 28.5 in 1991 and 30 in 2001.

The bureau predicts the median age of mothers will reach 30.7 by 2011. The median age of new fathers was 32.5 last year.

The figures also showed the number of births registered in Australia swelled 2 per cent to 251,000 last year, the highest since 1997.

About twice as many people are born as die each year and there were more boys born in 2002 than girls. The bureau counted 128,623 male babies and 122,365 females.

Nearly 70 per cent of births were to married mothers in 2002.

The birth rate remained relatively stable at 1.75 babies per woman, just above the 1.73 rate recorded in 2001.

Australia's fertility rate is still well below the world's average, less than that recorded in the US (2.1 babies per woman) and New Zealand (2 babies), but higher than the United Kingdom (1.6), Germany (1.4) and Japan (1.3).

If Australia's fertility rate stays at 1.7, the bureau predicts the population will top 27.3 million by 2051. The median age would be 45.6 years old.

Indigenous women aged between 30 and 34 living in the Northern Territory were the most fertile in the nation last year.

The high fertility rate of the NT's indigenous population - 2.78 babies per woman - pushed up the result for the territory.

Women living in the Top End averaged 2.28 babies, whereas women living in the ACT recorded a fertility rate of just 1.59 babies per woman - the lowest of all the states and territories.

Last year was the third in a row where the 30-34 age group recorded the highest fertility rate - averaging 111.2 births for every 1000 women.

The fertility rate of 20- to 24-year-olds has almost halved in the past 20 years, from 104 babies per 1000 women in 1982 to 56 babies per 1000 women in 2002.
