The Daily. Monday, December 10, 2001

Births

Canadians are pushing the age boundaries upward when starting their families, according to new data on births.

In 1983, women in their 30s and older accounted for only 14% of live births to first-time mothers. By 1999, this proportion had more than doubled to 32%.

The story was similar for the fathers of babies born to first-time mothers. In 1983, men in their 30s and older fathered 32% of the babies of first-time mothers. By 1999, that had risen to 51%.

In total, 337,249 babies were born in 1999, down 1.5% from 1998. This was the ninth year of decline in live births, although 1999's drop was well short of the record decline of 4.8% in 1997. The number of live births fell in 1999 in all provinces and territories except for Newfoundland (+1.2%), Prince Edward Island (+0.7%) and Alberta (+0.7%).

Births⁽¹⁾

The fertility rate, which estimates the average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime, continued its nine-year fall to a new low in 1999 of 1,528 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 49. While women aged 25 to 29 had the highest fertility rate, 100.3 live births per 1,000 women that age, their fertility rate has decreased 24% since 1990. From 1990 to 1999, fertility rates declined for women in all age groups under 35, but fertility rates of women in age groups 35 and older increased.

Mothers of multiple-birth babies were more likely to be 30 years of age and older than mothers who had single births. Almost 55% of multiple-birth babies were born to women aged 30 and older, compared with only 45% of single births.

Twins, triplets and other multiple birth babies accounted for 2.7% of all births in 1999, up from 1.8% in 1979. Since 1979, the number of multiple birth babies has increased 35% while the total number of births has decreased 7.7%. In recent years, this trend has accelerated. From 1993 to 1999, the number of multiple birth babies has increased 12.5%, while the total number of births has declined 13.2%.

Babies in multiple births are much more likely to be premature-that is, born before 37 completed weeks of gestation-than are babies in single births. In 1999, 53% of babies in multiple births were premature, compared with 7% of babies in single births.

The proportion of babies with low birth weight (born weighing less than 2,500 grams) continued to fall in 1999, to 5.6% of all live births. Canada's low birth weight rate has remained below 6% of live births since 1979. If multiple birth babies (twins, triplets and so on) were excluded from the calculation, only 4.4% of babies born in 1999 would have had a low birth weight.

For more information, or to order custom tabulations, call Client Custom Services (613-951-1746), Health Statistics Division. To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Patricia Tully (613-951-1759) or Leslie Geran (613-951-5243), Health Statistics Division.