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Births, 2013

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Released: 2016-10-26

In 2013, there were 380,323 live births in Canada, down slightly from 381,869 births in 2012. The number of live births in 2013 was the fourth highest annual number in the last 20 years. The proportion of male live births (51.3%) was slightly higher in 2013 than that of female live births (48.7%).

On average, in 2013, Canadian mothers were older when giving birth compared with two decades earlier. In 1993, the average age of a mother giving birth was 28.0 years. By 2013, the average age had increased to 29.9 years. While 60.3% of live births in 1993 were to women under the age of 30, this proportion fell to 45.6% in 2013.

Over the last two decades, women have become more likely to delay the birth of their first child. In 2013, 42.8% of first births were to women aged 30 to 49, up from 26.6% in 1993.

  Note to readers

Data on births are collected by the Vital Statistics – Birth Database, an administrative survey that collects demographic and medical information annually from all provincial and territorial vital statistics registries on all live births in Canada.

Data are used to calculate basic indicators (such as counts and rates) on births of residents of Canada. Information from this database is also used in the calculation of statistics, such as age-specific fertility rates.

Data for the 2013 reference year from the Vital Statistics – Birth Database are now available.

Products

The fact sheets "Trends in Canadian births, 1993 to 2013," "Low birth weight newborns in Canada, 2000 to 2013" and "Preterm live births in Canada, 2000 to 2013," which are part of the publication Health Fact Sheets (Catalogue number82-625-X), are now available from the Browse by key resource module of our website, under Publications.

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; STATCAN.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.STATCAN@canada.ca).

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