Canada's fertility rate hits all-time low, BC's lowest in country

Canada’s fertility rate hit an all-time low in 2022, according to Statistics Canada.

The rate – 1.33 children per woman – is the lowest recorded in more than 100 years of collecting data.

In British Columbia, the rate was 1.11, the lowest in Canada. The highest rate, 2.23, was recorded in Nunavut.

For a population to sustain itself, the fertility rate must be 2.1 children per woman.

If that rate is not achieved, a society ends up with fewer young people and more retirees, ultimately causing the population to age and shrink. With fewer people of working age, it also means a smaller tax base and increasing job vacancies.

Declining fertility rates have been recorded across most of the world in recent years, with Western countries like Canada choosing mass immigration as a means of making up for a lack of babies.

StatCan’s new report highlights 1960 and the wide availability of the contraceptive pill as the beginning of the long decline in Canada’s fertility rate.

The country slipped below replacement level in the early 1970s before seeing more declines in the 1990s and late 2000s.

Fertility rates briefly rose during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, but fell again in 2022.

The decline between 2021 and 2022 (1.44 to 1.33) was the largest observed since the so-called “baby bust” of the 1970s.

The agency also said that the age at which mothers give birth has increased.

In 1977, it was 26.8 years; in 2022, it reached 31.6.

“The seesaw pattern of Canada's [total fertility rate] from 2020 to 2022 is comparable to what many other countries experienced over the same period, suggesting that the pandemic may have temporarily disrupted fertility behaviours,” StatCan explained.

“In 2022, Canada's [total fertility rate] (1.33 children per woman) ranked in the middle of the pack of 10 selected high-income countries, including those in the G7, with values ranging from 0.78 children per woman in South Korea to 1.80 children per woman in France.

“The 7.4 per cent decline in fertility observed in Canada from 2021 to 2022 ranked third among these same countries, after the Netherlands (-8.4 per cent) and Germany (-7.7 per cent).”