India: mothers are younger on average than in 1950
The mean age of mothers at childbirth was 27.5 years in 2023 against 28.0 years in 1950. Women then had 5.7 children each, and many births were third or later ones, which come later in life; now 1.9.
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The mean age of mothers covers every birth of the year: first, second, fifth. With large families many children are born to women over 30 and 35, so the mean is high even when the first child comes early. When families shrink to one or two, late births become rarer.
The line is the mean age of mothers at all births of the year; the dashed line, the level of 1950; the dot, the youngest mothers (25.4 in 1995).
- Mean age of mothers at childbirth years
28.0 (1950) → 27.5 (2023)
- Total fertility rate children per woman
5.73 (1950) → 1.90 (2024)
UN DESA, World Population Prospects 2024 → Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India: CRS Report 2024 (Statement 10, India row) and SRS Statistical Report 2024 (Tab
UN estimates (World Population Prospects 2024); age at first birth from the Human Fertility Database where available. Selection: countries of at least 10 million where mothers are no older now than in 1950 and fertility fell from 2.4 children or more to 2.2 or fewer; the six largest.
This is the mean age at all births, not at first births. Estimates for 1950 rest on censuses and surveys in many countries.
A question for this picture
What changes mothers’ age more: later first births or the disappearance of late third and fourth children?