The total fertility is the average number of children a hypothetical cohort of women would have at the end of their reproductive period if they were subject during their whole lives to the fertility rates of a given period and if they were not subject to mortality. It is expressed as children per woman.

Currently, the world population has a total fertility of about 2.5 children per woman. With this fertility the population will continue to increase significantly, because only about 2.1 children would be sufficient to replace one generation with the next generation. The figure above presents, in addition to the world average, the regions with the highest and the lowest fertility: Africa and Europe.

Africa, currently has an average total fertility of about 4.7 children per women - far more than would be necessary to replace a generation.

Europe, on the other hand, has a total fertility of around 1.6 - which is far below the level that would be necessary to replace one generation with the next.

In both Europe and Northern America total fertility is below the "reproductive level" of 2.1 children per women, which would be necessary replace one generation with the next.

However, since the early 1990s Northern America has a significantly higher total fertility than Europe. Social and economic problems, related to low fertility, such as population aging, are therefore less severe in Northern America than in Europe

Africa is in a unique position, when it comes to the trends in fertility: Contrary, to what demographers have observed for Asia and Latin America, fertility did not decline much in Africa. The continent still has an average total fertility of around 4.7 children per woman. This is far higher, than would be necessary to replace one generation with the next.

Consequently, Africa's population is still growing rapidly.

In these countries the average total fertility in the five-year period 2010-2015 was estimated to be higher than 2.5 children per woman. Most of these countries are in Africa.

For instance, Niger, Somalia, Mali, Chad, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi have all an average total fertility of more than 6 children per women. There are also 16 African countries, where the total fertility is between 5 and 6 children per woman.

This total fertility is far higher than would be necessary to replace one generation with the next. It is causing the current explosive population growth in these regions.

All of these countries have an average total fertility below the replacement level of 2.1. This means that in these countries people, on average, have fewer children than would be necessary to replace one generation with the next./*

There are 24 countries, where the average fertility is between 1.5 and 1.6 children per women; and there are even 17 countries, where the total fertility is between 1.1 and 1.4 children. This is far below the level necessary for reproduction.

All of the countries with extremely low, below-replacement, fertility are in Asia and Europe - including countries such as Japan, Germany, the Republic of Korea, Poland and Italy.

This figure displays the number of people with a particular level of total fertility between 1950 and 2100 - based on estimated and projected total fertility rates from the 2010 Revision of the United Nations World Population Prospects.
In the early 1950 more than half of the world population had fertility rates above 5 children per woman.
Today, more than half of the world population already have fertility rates below 2.1 children per woman - as a result of the steep fertility decline in China.
Very soon, only a minority of people will have fertility rates of more than 3 children per woman - mostly countries in Africa and the arabic world.

For comparison, the table above presents the official estimates of total fertility from EUROSTAT for the countries of the European Union.

Overall, the EEUROSTAT estimate for the 28 European member countries is at 1.55 children per women for the year 2013.

This is very much in line with the estimate of the United Nations Population Division as published in the 2015 Revision of the World Population Prospects.

The average total fertility for the 28 countries of the European Union has hardly changed over the past 15 years and is still only slightly above 1.5 children per woman

Over the same period, mean age at childbirth has increased from 29.0 years in 2001 to 30.3 years in 2013.

Average fertility in Europe is far below the level that would be necessary to replace one generation with the next. As a consequence, Europe's population will age and (eventually) decline.

Massive net-immigration could compensate these effects of sub-replacement fertility to some extent - for the price of social, cultural and economic distruptions due to high numbers of non-european immigrants.

The most natural and appropriate demographic response to extremely low levels of fertility in Europe would be an increase in fertility to the level of about 2.1 children per woman.

This would eventually re-balance the relation between generations, significantly slow-down population aging and prevent long-term population decline.

This figure displays the latest EUROSTAT estimates of total fertility for all countries of the European Union. The estimates are for the year 2013 (or latest available).

The population in all of these countries has far fewer children than would be necessary to replace one generation with the next. Their total fertility is as low as 1.3 children per woman.

Since most of these European countries now have sub-replacement fertility for many decades, their population is ageing and they soon will beginn to decline - or have already started to decline.

The age of women at birth of their first child varies considerably among European countries:

In Italy, Switzerland and Spain women are between 1.5 and 2 years older at birth of their first child than on average in the 28 countries of the European Union.

In the Eastern European and Western Asian countries of Armenia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus mean age of women at birth of first child ar at least 3.5 years younger than the EU average

Among european countries we can find a large range of social diversity in reproduction:

In several countries, including Iceland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Slovenia, France and Norway, 50% of all births or more occur out of marrage.

But there are also countries, including Turkey, Greece, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the FYR of Macedonia, where more than 85% of all births are within marriages.

This chart represents age-specific fertility rates of Belarus between 1950 and 2020 - based on the 2015 Revision of the World Population Prospects.

Blue colors represent low fertility; red colors represent high age-specific fertility. In addition, the figure shows the mean age at childbearing (MAC); as well as the Total Fertilit Rate (TFR).

One can easily see that fertility has droped significantly since the 1950s and has reached its lowes level in the 1995-2010 period. It is remarkable that the mean age at childbearing also reached its lowest level in the 1990-1995 period.

Since then, the age at childbearing has increased sigificantly, while the total fertility has only recovered moderately since about 2005.