Forest Lake – Doolandella has one of the highest number of births among Southeast Queensland suburbs in 2017, as revealed by the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics report.
Forest Lake – Doolandella is among the SE-QLD suburbs that delivered the most number of babies with 460, an increase of 5.99 percent from 2011 and 3.60 percent from 2016. Despite the increase in the number of births, fertility rate was down to 1.98 from 2.23 in 2011 and 2.01 in 2016. Upper Coomera — Willow Vale recorded the highest number of births with 553, an 8.4 percent increase from 2011; TFR was also down from 2.48 in 2011 to 2.18.
Declining Total Fertility Rate
To replace the mother and her partner, the current TFR required for replacement is around 2.10 babies per woman, the ABS report said. In 2017, there were a total of 61,158 births recorded in Queensland with a total fertility rate of 1.82, down from TFR of 2.09 recorded in 2011 and 1.86 in 2016. The national total fertility rate in 2017 was 1.74 down from 1.79 in 2016.
Among QLD LGAs, Brisbane recorded the most number of births with 14,598 (TFR 1.51), followed by Gold Coast 6,958 (TFR 1.67), Moreton Bay 5,539 (1.95), Logan 4,960 (TFR 2.15), and Ipswich 3,351 (TFR 2.15).
Child Bearing Shifting Towards Older Age
Of the total 309,142 births in Australia, 77.60 percent came from New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland. The report showed that the fertility rate of women 35 and over is rising, a stark contrast to other age groups which are seen to be falling.
For women aged 35-39 has doubled in fertility rate in the past 30 years, whilst women aged 40-44 has tripled. Conversely, teenage fertility was down by almost 50 percent. However, women aged 30-34 still have the highest fertility rate with the 25-29 age group coming in second.
“The long-term decline in fertility of younger mums as well as the continued increase in fertility of older mums reflects a shift towards late childbearing. Together, this has resulted in a rise in median age of mothers and a fall in Australia’s total fertility rate,” ABS Director of Demography — Anthony Grubb, said.