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Blog: 1 March 2017 (How many children are born in SA each year and how old are their parents?)
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In today's blog we take a look at the number of children born in SA and the age of their parents. Data is from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) recorded live births data set.
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How many recorded births in SA each year?
The bar chart below shows the number of recorded live births in South Africa each year from 1998 all the way to 2015.
As can be seen from the bar chart above, the number of recorded live births in South Africa has steady been declining over the years, after reaching it's peak in 2003. Since then there has been a slow gradual decline in the number of recorded live births in South Africa. The red line chart shows a 3 year rolling average of live births clearly highlighting the decline in the number of live births as measured in South Africa.
Now there could be a number of reasons for the decline in live births as measured. Some may include:
1. An increase in number of miscarriages (due to lifestyle reasons). More stressful working environments. Unhealthy eating and or drinking habits etc.
2. Economic reasons. Families are having smaller number of children due to the high economic costs involved in having children
3. Increase in number of parents rather adopting children
4. Large number of parents who are able to have children have emigrated out of South Africa in recent years and therefore any future children they might have will not be recorded in SA
5. Woman becoming more career orientated and having fewer children and at an older age (this we will test later on on the article).
1. An increase in number of miscarriages (due to lifestyle reasons). More stressful working environments. Unhealthy eating and or drinking habits etc.
2. Economic reasons. Families are having smaller number of children due to the high economic costs involved in having children
3. Increase in number of parents rather adopting children
4. Large number of parents who are able to have children have emigrated out of South Africa in recent years and therefore any future children they might have will not be recorded in SA
5. Woman becoming more career orientated and having fewer children and at an older age (this we will test later on on the article).
While looking at the number of births over time is pretty interesting, we will now look at the number of children born per age category for both men and woman.
Looking at the scatter plot above it is clear that woman tend to have children at a much younger age then men. Possibly due to biological reasons in which woman's biological clock is ticking and they feel they need to have children at a much younger age than men. Note this scatter plot is based on 2015 live births as recorded by Stats SA. As can be seen a far larger percentage of children fathered by men are born with the father's age at above 30 years.
In terms of percentage of children born before and up to age 30 and above the age of 30 the following was found. Table shows percentage of children born for each category.
In terms of percentage of children born before and up to age 30 and above the age of 30 the following was found. Table shows percentage of children born for each category.
Description |
Up to age of 30 |
Over age of 30 |
Total |
Woman |
71.4% |
28.6% |
100% |
Men |
47.4% |
52.6% |
100% |
The question now is whether this pattern has changed over time in order to see if woman are giving birth at an older age as they start pursuing careers more actively? Below a graph comparing the percentage of children born per age category in 2015 vs 1998.
As can be seen there has been a slight shift in the age at which woman give birth to children in 2015, as a higher percentage of births are taking place at a later age compared to 1998 data. The table below compares the percentage of children born with woman up to the age of 30 and above 30 for both 1998 and 2015. The table is the numerical representation of the graphic above.
Description |
Up to age of 30 |
Over age of 30 |
Total |
Woman 1998 |
75.2% |
24.8% |
100% |
Woman 2015 |
71.4% |
28.6% |
100% |
While the shift is negligible it will be interesting to track this over the next few years in order to see if this trend continues in which a larger number of children are born with woman at an older age than the percentages as was recorded in 1998.
From the little we have seen it looks like woman are starting to focus a little more on careers and a little less on building families.
From the little we have seen it looks like woman are starting to focus a little more on careers and a little less on building families.