The 10 countries with the highest birth rates — and the 10 with the lowest

Roughly 60 years after the post-WWII baby boom ended, the global birth rate is less than half what it was in the 1960s, the World Bank Group reported.

But not every country reports similar birth rates.

The World Bank Group gathered crude birth rate data in 2024 — that is, the number of live births per 1,000 people in a year — as well as the total fertility rate, which measures the average number of births per woman.

Business Insider identified the 10 countries with the highest crude birth rates, and the 10 places with the lowest, as well as the total fertility rate for each. For our list, we didn’t include territories or autonomous regions such as Hong Kong.

The US had a birth rate of 10.6 births per 1,000 people, making it the 135th-ranked country in the world. It also had an average of 1.6 births per woman in 2024. This is below the global birth rate of 16 births per 1,000 people, and the global fertility rate of 2.2 births per woman.

Amid declining birth rates, Americans are waiting longer to have children due to financial reasons, and many want more kids than they currently have, Business Insider previously reported.

Birth rates are falling at different rates worldwide, with higher-income countries generally seeing lower birth rates, yet most countries share a downward trend since the 1960s.

Countries in Africa consistently reported the highest birth rates, accounting for nine of the top 10 countries. Of the top 10 countries, eight reported a prevalence of contraceptives for married women of just 20% or lower, per the World Bank Group.

In countries with the lowest birth rates, economic issues are likely factors. The Associated Press cited “bleak job prospects” and high-cost of living among factors for low birth rates in Japan, which its former prime minister called a “silent emergency.”

The World Bank Group used data from the UN Population Division and the UN Statistical Division, as well as data from national statistics offices.

See the 10 places with the highest birth rates in the world, followed by the 10 with the lowest.