Australia's mothers and babies

Many of the demographics and characteristics of mothers and babies in Australia are similar from year to year. However, trends over time can reveal interesting patterns. This section presents long-term trends for key topics, from 1998 (or earliest available year of data) to 2022.

In 2022, there were 297,725 babies born to 293,435 mothers in Australia. The ratio of male babies was 105.4 per 100 female babies (51% males compared with 49% females).

The birth rate was 56 per 1,000 women of reproductive age (aged 15 to 44 years) in 2022. This is a return to the rate for 2020 (56 per 1,000 women) – after a spike in 2021 (61 per 1,000 women) – and in line with a generally decreasing trend since 2007 (down from 66 per 1,000 women in 2007).

Over time, the following notable changes were seen:

• an increase in the average age of first-time mothers (from 28.3 years in 2010 to 29.8 years in 2022)
• a decrease in smoking at any time during pregnancy (from 13% in 2011 to 8.3% in 2022)
• an increase in caesarean section births (from 29% in 2004 to 39% in 2022)
• an increase in induction of labour (from 26% in 1998 to 33% in 2022).

Select the topic of interest and hover over the line graph (Figure 1) to view data on selected maternal and baby trends from 1998 (or earliest available year of data).

Figure 1: Key statistics of interest for mothers and babies

For more information on the liveborn ratio of male to female babies see National Perinatal Data Collection annual update data table 3.2.