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Births and fertility are still continuing an upward trend but at a slowing pace compared to the two previous years

  1. For a sixth consecutive year, the number of live births in Canada increased, reaching 377,886 in 2008. However, this annual increase of 2.7% was less pronounced than the growth registered in the previous two years, namely 3.6% in 2006 and 3.7% in 2007.
  2. Since 2003, the TFR has seen an upward trend where the total fertility rate went from 1.53 to 1.68 in 2008. However, the increase between 2007 and 2008 was smaller (1.3%) than the two previous years where it was 2.8% between 2005 and 2006 and 4.6% between 2006 and 2007
  3. Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan had the highest fertility in the country with more than two children per woman on average. In contrast, British Columbia had the lowest fertility of the country.
  4. The recent increase in births could be explained partly by a rise in fertility rates and by the fact that many women have entered their childbearing years.

Fertility was highest for women in their early thirties

  1. For a fourth consecutive year, the age-specific fertility rate for women aged 30 to 34 was the highest. In 2008, it was 107.4 births per 1,000 women.

Fertility continues to increase for women in their early forties

  1. The age-specific fertility rate of women aged 40 to 44 has more than doubled from 1988 to 2008, going from 3.6 to 8.4 per 1,000 women.

Births are up in all of Canada except the Northwest Territories

  1. From 2007 to 2008, the number of births rose in all provinces and territories except the Northwest Territories.
  2. The largest increases in number of births were in Newfoundland and Labrador (7.6%), Prince Edward Island (6.8%) and Yukon (5.1%).
  3. For Newfoundland and Labrador this is the fourth consecutive year of birth growth and the largest increase since 2005.

Stillbirths and stillbirth rate trends

  1. The number of stillbirths (or fetal deaths) in Canada was 2,774 in 2008, an increase of 5.2 % from 2007.
  2. From 2007 to 2008, the stillbirth rate went up from 7.1 per 1,000 total births (live births and stillbirths) to 7.3.