And that trend towards limited child-bearing is increasingly reflected in Canada’s average fertility rate, which 2016 census figures released Wednesday have pegged at 1.6 per cent, slightly higher than the 1.59 posted by Statistics Canada three years earlier. The fertility rate refers to the number of children a hypothetical woman would have over the course of her reproductive life, based on females aged 15 to 49. “Fertility rates around the globe are dropping, even in cultures where typically women had seven or eight children or more,” she said. “Their patterns of having children are different than ours.”She said Americans overall form unions earlier in life and have children at a younger age. Without a sustained level of immigration, it says Canada’s growth rate could be close to zero in 20 years as the population ages and projected fertility rates lag replacement level.

Source: National Post February 08, 2017 14:00 UTC