How many babies are born, country by country
This reference shows the crude birth rate — the number of live births per 1,000 people each year — for countries around the world. You can search for a country and sort the table to see the full range, from high-fertility nations above 40 per 1,000 down to the lowest, below 5 per 1,000.
How it works
The crude birth rate is calculated as (annual live births / mid-year population) × 1000. It is described as “crude” because it ignores the age and sex structure of the population: a country with a large share of young adults will register more births per 1,000 people than an older country at the same underlying fertility. That is why demographers also use the total fertility rate (TFR), which estimates lifetime births per woman and strips out the age-structure effect. Birth rates tend to fall as countries develop, driven by urbanisation, women’s education and economic participation, lower child mortality, and access to contraception — a pattern known as the demographic transition.
Regional patterns and what drives them
The global range is wide. Sub-Saharan Africa dominates the high end of the table — countries in the Sahel like Niger and Chad sit far above the world average because of high TFR combined with young populations. By contrast, East Asian economies and several Southern European countries sit at the low end, where very low TFR and ageing populations push the crude rate into single digits. Some of these countries now have more deaths than births per year, meaning natural population change is negative and long-run population depends entirely on migration.
A country’s birth rate can shift quickly when the demographic context changes. Countries that industrialised rapidly in a single generation — South Korea and Japan are often cited — saw birth rates drop faster than almost anywhere else in recorded demographic history.
Reading the data alongside other indicators
The crude birth rate is a starting point, not the full picture:
- Pair with the TFR to separate age-structure effects from true fertility behaviour. A country with many young adults can have a high CBR even if individual women are having fewer children.
- Pair with the death rate to see whether the population is growing or shrinking through natural change alone.
- Pair with the Gini coefficient or HDI if you are researching the relationship between development and fertility, since both have well-documented connections to birth rates.
Tips and notes
- Sort by lowest first to see the countries facing population decline, where deaths now outnumber births.
- High crude rates concentrate in the Sahel and East Africa; the lowest sit in East Asia and Southern Europe.
- These are rounded recent estimates for comparison; consult national statistics offices or the UN Population Division for authoritative, year-specific figures.