Should Declining Fertility Rates be a Cause for Concern in Australia?
Australia has experienced a decline in fertility rates since the 1960s when the fertility rate peaked. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the total fertility rate has remained below the replacement level since 1976 (ABS 2013). ABS also observed that women of all ages, occupation, or education level are having fewer children now than in the past. Another research dubbed “Battering the Evaluation of Care Health (BEACH)” revealed that 1.3 per 1000 encounters in hospitals between 2007 and 2012 were attributed to infertility (Britt, Harrison & Zhang, 2012) Majority, 81.6% of the infertility cases were reported in women. The ...