Total fertility rate (TFR)

The total fertility rate represents the number of children that 15-year-old women would give birth to before the age of 49 if they adopted the fertility by age group observed during that period. The total fertility rate is calculated here over a 5-year period, based on the fertility rates of women aged 15 to 49. It is the sum of fertility rates by five-year age groups multiplied by 5. Fertility rates by age group take the average annual number of live births for women in a given age group as the numerator. The denominator is the average for the analysed period of the populations on 1 July of women in the same age group. The total fertility rate is an indicator of population turnover that is not influenced by the age structure of the population, unlike the crude birth rate. It is therefore an excellent comparative indicator of the fertility of a population. The renewal of the population is ensured if the number of girls in the generation of children is equal to the number of women in the generation of parents. In the absence of mortality, it is therefore necessary for a woman to give birth to 2.05 children (2.05 and not 2 because 105 boys are born for every 100 girls) to replace a generation, namely herself and the father.