Number of children per woman (total fertility rate)

The average number of children is used to describe the current fertility behaviour. It indicates how many children a woman would give birth to in the course of her life if her fertility behaviour were the same as that of all women aged between 15 and 49 years in the year examined. The average number of children is calculated as the total fertility rate. For the purpose, all children born are arranged by their mother’s age. Then for every year of age the share of women of that age is calculated who gave birth to a child in that year. This results in age-specific birth rates for the age of 15 years, 16 years etc. up to the age of 49 years. Those averages of the individual years of age are added up. The result is the total fertility rate.