Crude birth rate, age-specific fertility rates and total fertility rate (live births)^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}

Sources: Statistics Canada, Canadian Vital Statistics, Birth Database (CVSB) and Centre for Demography (population estimates)

Live birth is the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of conception, irrespective of the duration of the pregnancy, which, after such separation, breathes or shows any other evidence of life, such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached.

During the production of each year's birth/death/stillbirth statistics, data from previous years may be revised to reflect any updates or changes that have been received from the provincial and territorial vital statistics registrars.

From 2017 to 2022 inclusive, births for Yukon are not available.

Due to improvements in methodology and timeliness, the duration of data collection has been shortened compared to previous years. As a result, there may have been fewer births and stillbirths captured by the time of the release. The 2022 and 2023 data are considered preliminary.

As a result of delays with birth registrations, fewer births have been captured, to date, for Manitoba in 2021 and 2022. There were also fewer births captured for Nova Scotia in 2021 due to completeness issues. Other provinces and territories may also have been affected and the 2021 and 2022 births data will be revised with subsequent releases. Consequently, trends in the fertility rates and total fertility rate for the years 2021 and 2022 should be interpreted with caution.

The geographic distribution of live births in this table is based on the mother's usual place of residence.

Rates for Canada include live births to mothers who are residents of Canada, with unknown province or territory of residence. Births for which the province of residence is unknown, and not imputed with the place of occurrence, were prorated using the observed distribution.

Age of mother attained at the last birthday preceding delivery.

Age-specific fertility rate (ASFR) is the number of live births per 1,000 females in a specific age group. Five-year age groups were used in these tabulations (ranging from 15 to 19 years to 45 to 49 years).

The following standard symbols are used in this Statistics Canada table: (..) for figures not available for a specific reference period, (...) for figures not applicable and (x) for figures suppressed to meet the confidentiality requirements of the Statistics Act.

The population estimates used are the most recent available at time of dissemination, adjusted for census net undercoverage (CNU) and incompletely enumerated reserves and settlements (IERS).

Total fertility rate is an estimate of the average number of live births a female can be expected to have in her lifetime, based on the age-specific fertility rates (ASFR) of a given year. The total fertility rate (TFR) = (SUM of single year of age-specific fertility rates) / 1,000.