Declining fertility among younger generations

Age-specific fertility rates across the generations born between 1946 and 1985 show a decline in fertility and an upward shift in the age pattern of childbearing.
There has been a trend toward postponing childbearing until later ages, specifically, a decrease in fertility rates among women in their early twenties and an increase among women in their thirties and early forties. The age of peak fertility has increased from age 24 for women born in 1946 to age 30 for those born in 1975.
Higher fertility rates of women throughout their thirties, however, do not offset lower fertility rates during their twenties. To date, this results in a lower overall completed fertility among generations as women do not simply ‘make up’ for lower fertility rates in their twenties by having higher fertility rates at older ages.

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