Fertility rate, total (births per woman)

Definition

Total fertility rate represents the number of children that would be born to a woman if she were to live to the end of her childbearing years and bear children in accordance with age-specific fertility rates of the specified year.

Methodology for Health & Population indicators

Health and population indicators come from national vital-registration systems, demographic and health surveys, and modeling by the UN Population Division and WHO. Mortality and morbidity estimates are often modeled rather than directly observed in lower-capacity statistical systems, which means some figures are interpolations between survey years. Life expectancy is a "period" measure based on current age-specific mortality, not a forecast of how long someone born today will actually live.

How to interpret

• Always check the unit and reporting year before comparing values across countries.
• NULL or "Not available" means the World Bank did not publish a value — we never estimate.
• Year-over-year changes can be driven by methodology updates, not just real economic shifts.