Politics
Thursday August 3, 2006
Canada’s Birth Rate Declines, Again: StatsCan
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Terry Vanderheyden
OTTAWA, August 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new report released Monday by Statistics Canada has revealed that Canada’s birth rate has continued to decline to a new record low of 10.5 live births for every 1,000 population in 2004 – down from 10.6 in 2003.
StatsCan also revealed that the average age of women giving birth has increased from 29.6 in 2003 to 29.7 years in 2004. StatsCan noted as “particularly striking” the change in average age of mothers between 1979 and 2004. In one generation, only half as many women were mothers by age 24, at 20.6 per cent, compared to 40.7 per cent of women under 24 in 1979. Births to mothers over the age of 35, meanwhile, were almost four times as frequent as a generation earlier.
Looking at fertility rates – the number of children a woman will have throughout her child-bearing years – the national average remained constant between 2003 and 2004 at 1.53 children per woman. Visible minorities had higher than average fertility rates at 1.7 children per woman, although that rate represented a significant drop from a previous rate of 1.94 in 1996. StatsCan also noted that the birth rate among immigrant women quickly normalizes to the national average by the second generation.
Looking at individual faith groups, Muslim women were having 2.41 children per woman in 2001 – the only religion with a replacement birth rate (considered to be 2.1 children per woman). Hindus rated second at 2.0, while Buddhists, Orthodox Christians and women who had no religion at all registered at the opposite extreme, with 1.34, 1.35, and 1.41 children per woman respectively. Protestants and Roman Catholics were having children at near the national average at 1.57 children.
Canada set its record low for fertility at 1.49 women per children in 2000.
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Pro-Lifer Attacked with SUV, Alleged Attacker Charged
- Huckabee Hashes Out Abortion Arguments with Comedian Jon Stewart
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Amnesty International Caught in "One Big Lie"
- Editorial: Archbishop Weisgerber is Wrong - Vatican Stopped its Donation to UNICEF in 1996
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Government of Trinidad and Tobago: No Homosexual "Weddings," No Abortion
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.