Canada's 2022 fertility rate lowest on record, StatsCan reports

Canada's total fertility rate dropped to its lowest point in more than a century of data-keeping in 2022, hitting just 1.33 children per woman, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.

The 7.4 per cent decline in the rate from 2021 to 2022, the agency said, was the steepest drop since the 7.6 per cent decline from 1971 to 1972, which took place at the height of the baby bust following the 1946-1965 baby boom.

The 1971-1972 decline also took place three years after Parliament passed legislation that legalized birth control pills and therapeutic abortions.

The trend of decreasing fertility rates affected all provinces to varying degrees. Fertility rates were highest in Saskatchewan (1.69), Quebec (1.49), and Alberta (1.45) and lowest in B.C (1.11), Nova Scotia (1.18), and Newfoundland and Labrador and P.E.I., both of which recorded a rate of 1.22.

StatsCan said the pattern of decline from 2020 to 2022 — an initial drop, then an increase, followed by a second drop — is similar to what many other countries experienced, «suggesting the COVID-19 pandemic may have temporarily disrupted fertility behaviours» around the world.

While every G7 country apart from the United States posted a decline in fertility in 2022 (the U.S. rate actually rose slightly to 1.67), Canada's «decrease was one of the largest among high-income countries,» Statistics Canada said.

Despite that decline, Canada's fertility rate was still higher in 2022 than the rates in South Korea (0.78), Spain (1.16), Italy (1.24) and Japan (1.26).

Comparable countries with higher fertility rates include France (1.8), the United Kingdom (1.52) and Germany (1.46).

COVID-19's impact

Canada's fertility rate has been sliding since 2009.

Statistics Canada said that Canada's five lowest