In 2011, Canadian women had an average of 1.61 children

The total fertility rate indicates the number of children that a cohort of women would have at the end of their reproductive years if, during their reproductive life, they would have experienced the age-specific fertility rates observed in a given year.
The total fertility rate increased slightly from 1.51 children per woman in 2002 to 1.68 in 2008, before falling during the subsequent years to 1.61 children per woman in 2011.
For more than 40 years, the total fertility rate in Canada has been below the replacement level^Note 3 (which is currently 2.1 children per woman). This means that, on average, couples are no longer having enough children to replace them. This low-fertility era is following the postwar baby-boom period (1946 to 1965), when the total fertility rate was much higher, reaching 3.94 children per woman in 1959.

Notes