to immigrant women have fallen and are now below replacement. the fertility gap is closing. there were 11.1 births per thousand people in 2018, compared to a peak of 20.5 in 1947, and the total fertility rate was 1.70, down from 1.76 in 2017. at the same time, the number of stillbirths – when a baby is born after at least 24 weeks of pregnancy but with no signs of life – fell to a record low for the second consecutive year, standing at 4.1 per a thousand births in 2018. meanwhile, in scotland, the fertility rate continues its downward trend since 2008. figures from the national records of scotland (nrs) reveal that 12,580 births were registered in the final quarter of 2018. except for 2002, this is the lowest since record-keeping began in 1855. nrs explained that economic insecurity and the postponement of motherhood, which often means having fewer children, are among the reasons why. north america population pyramid of canada in 2018 in canada, about one in five millennials were delaying having children because of financial worries. canada's average non-mortgage debt was can$20,000 in 2018. one in three millennials felt "overwhelmed" by their liabilities, compared to 26% of generation x and 13% of baby boomers, according to consultant firm bdo canada. more than one in three canadians with children felt stressed out by debt, compared with one-fifth of those without children. many canadian couples in their 20s and 30s are also struggling with their student loan debts. research by the royal bank of canada suggests that canadian millennials have been flocking to the large cities in spite of their expensive costs of living between the mid- and late 2010s in search of economic opportunities and cultural amenities. data from statistics canada reveals that between 2000 and 2017, the birth rate among women under 30 years old fell in all provinces and territories except new brunswick women between the ages of 25 and 29 whereas that of women of age 30 and over rose everywhere except in nunavut among women aged 35 to 39. meanwhile, the adolescent fertility rate (15 to 19) halved in most of canada, thus leading to fewer teenage pregnancies, a result likely due to improved sex education. the comparatively low birth rate of women in their 20s living in british columbia and ontario was correlated with the high housing costs in these provinces. on the other hand, the northwest territories and nunavut had relatively high fertility rates because they have large indigenous populations, and indigenous women tend to have more children. (data for yukon was not available.) statistics canada reported in 2015 that for the first time in canadian history, there were more people aged 65 and over than people below the age of 15. one in six canadians were above the age of 65 in july 2015. if this trend continues, there would be three seniors for every two children below the age of 15 in 20 years. during the early 2010s, among the various religious groups in canada, muslims had the highest fertility rate of all. at 2.4 per woman, they outpaced hindus (2.0) sikhs (1.9), jews (1.8), christians (1.6), and secular people (1.4). nationwide, 38.6% of canadian couples had only one child during the late 2010s. population pyramid of the united states in 2018 as their economic prospects improve, most american millennials say they desire marriage, children, and home ownership. while millennials were initially responsible for the so-called "back-to-the-city" trend, by the late 2010s, millennial homeowners were more likely to be in the suburbs than the cities. besides the cost of living, including housing costs, people are leaving the big cities in search of warmer climates, lower taxes, better economic opportunities, and better school districts for their children. exurbs have become quite popular among millennials as well. the return of suburbanization in the united states is due to not just millennials reaching a stage in their lives where they start to have children but also to the new economics of space made possible by fast telecommunications technology and e-commerce, effectively cutting perceived distances. according to the pew research center, by 2016, the cumulative number of american women of the millennial generation who had given birth at least once reached 17.3 million. about 1.2 million millennial women had their first child that year. by the mid-2010s, millennials, who made up 29% of the adult population and 35% of the workforce of the u.s., were responsible for a majority of births in the nation. in 2016, 48% of millennial women were mothers, compared to 57% of generation-x women in 2000 when they were the same age. the increasing age of women when they become mothers for the first time is a trend that can be traced back to the 1970s, if not earlier. factors behind this trend include a declining interest in marriage, the growth in educational attainment, and the rise of women's participation in the workforce. single-child families were the fastest-growing type of family units in the u.s. during the late 2010s. a report from the brookings institution stated that in the united states, the millennials are a bridge between the largely caucasian pre-millennials (generation x and their predecessors) and the more diverse post-millennials (generation z and their successors). overall, the number of births to caucasian women in the united states dropped 7% between 2000 and 2018. among foreign-born caucasian women, however, the number of births increased by 1% in the same period. although the number of births to foreign-born hispanic women fell from 58% in 2000 to 50% in 2018, the share of births due to u.s.-born hispanic women increased from 20% in 2000 to 24% in 2018. the number of births to foreign-born asian women rose from 19% in 2000 to 24% in 2018 while that due to u.s.-born asian women went from 1% in 2000 to 2% in 2018. in all, between 2000 and 2017, more births were to foreign-born than u.s.-born women. by analyzing data from the census bureau, the pew research center discovered that in 2017, at least 20% of kindergartners in public schools were hispanics in a grand total of 18 u.s. states plus the district of columbia, compared to only eight states in 2000 and 17 in 2010. between 2010 and 2017, massachusetts and nebraska joined the list while idaho left. hispanics, who comprised 18% of the u.s. population (or about 60 million people) have been spreading across the united states since the 1980s and are now the largest minority ethnic group in the nation. they also made up 28% of the students in k-12 public schools in 2019, up from 14% in 1995. for comparison, the number of asian public-school students increased slightly, from 4% to 6% during the same period. blacks fell slightly from 17% to 15%, and whites dropped from 65% to 47%. overall, the number of children born to ethnic minorities has exceeded 50% of the total since 2015. provisional data from the centers for disease control and prevention reveal that u.s. fertility rates have fallen below the replacement level of 2.1 since 1971. in 2017, it dropped to 1.765, the lowest in three decades. 15.4% of the u.s. population was over 65 years of age in 2018. after the second world war, the u.s. fertility rate peaked in 1958 at 3.77 births per woman, fell to 1.84 in 1980, and climbed to 2.08 in 1990 before declining again in 2007. however, there is great variation in terms of geography, age groups, and ethnicity. south dakota had the highest birth rate at 2,228 per a thousand women and the district of columbia the lowest at 1,421. besides south dakota, only utah (2,121) had a birth rate above replacement level. from 2006 to 2016, women whose ages range from the mid-20s to the mid-30s maintained the highest birth rates of all while those in their late 30s and early 40s saw significant increases in birth rates. american women are having children later in life, with the average age at first birth rising to 26.4 in the late 2010s, up from 23 in the mid-1990s. falling teenage birth rates play a role in this development. in fact, the number of births given by teenagers, which reached ominous levels in the 1990s, have plummeted by about 60% between 2006 and 2016. this is thanks in no small part to the collapse of birth rates among black and hispanic teens, down 50% from 2006. overall, births fell for asians, blacks, hispanics, and whites but remained stable for native hawaiians and pacific islanders. while hispanic american women still maintained the highest fertility rate of any racial or ethnic groups in the united states, their birth rate dropped 31% between 2007 and 2017. like their american peers and unlike their immigrant parents and grandparents, young hispanic american women in the 2010s were more focused on their education and careers and less interested in having children. that u.s. fertility rates continue to drop is anomalous to demographers because fertility rates typically track the nation's economic health. it was no surprise that u.s. fertility rates dropped during the great recession of 2008. but the u.s. economy has shown strong signs of recovery for some time, and birthrates continue to fall. in general, however, american women still tend to have children earlier than their counterparts from other developed countries and the u.s. total fertility rate remains comparatively high for a rich country. in fact, compared with their counterparts from other countries in the organization for economic cooperation and development (oecd), first-time american mothers were among the youngest on average, on par with latvian women (26.5 years) during the 2010s. at the other extreme end were women from italy (30.8), and south korea (31.4). during the same period, american women ended their childbearing years with more children on average (2.2) than most other developed countries, with the notable exception of icelandic women (2.3). at the other end were women from germany, italy, spain, and japan (all 1.5). below-replacement-level fertility rates could lead to labor shortages in the future. speaking to the associated press, family specialist karen benjamin guzzo from bowling green state university in ohio recommended childcare subsidies, preschool expansion, (paid) parental leave, housing assistance, and student debt reduction or forgiveness. in any case, while the united states is indeed an aging society, its demographic decline is not as serious as that faced by many other major economies. the number of americans of working age is predicted to increase by 10% between 2019 and 2040. in 2019, the fertility rate of mexico was about 2.2, higher than that of any other member of the oecd except israel at 3.1. oceania population pyramid of australia in 2018 australia's total fertility rate has fallen from above three in the post-war era, to about replacement level (2.1) in the 1970s to below that in the late 2010s. it stood at 1.74 in 2017. however, immigration has been offsetting the effects of a declining birthrate. in the 2010s, among the residents of australia, 5% were born in the united kingdom, 2.5% from china, 2.2% from india, and 1.1% from the philippines. 84% of new arrivals in the fiscal year of 2016 were below 40 years of age, compared to 54% of those already in the country. like other immigrant-friendly countries, such as canada, the united kingdom, and the united states, australia's working-age population is expected to grow till about 2025. however, the ratio of people of working age to dependents and retirees (the dependency ratio) has gone from eight in the 1970s to about four in the 2010s. it could drop to two by the 2060s, depending on immigration levels. "the older the population is, the more people are on welfare benefits, we need more health care, and there's a smaller base to pay the taxes," ian harper of the melbourne business school told abc news (australia). while the government has scaled back plans to increase the retirement age, to cut pensions, and to raise taxes due to public opposition, demographic pressures continue to mount as the buffering effects of immigration are fading away. australians coming of age in the early twenty-first century are more reluctant to have children compared to their predecessors due to economic reasons: higher student debt, expensive housing, and negative