Society at a Glance 2024 - Country Notes: Austria

Spotlight on fertility trends

In 2022, 82 627 babies were born in Austria, corresponding to a total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.41 children per woman, which is 0.1 percentage points below the OECD average of 1.51.

Across the OECD on average, the TFR steadily declined from 1960 until 2002. There was a small a fertility rebound until 2008, upon which the TFR dropped to an all-time low of 1.5 in 2022. Fertility rates in Austria have been below the OECD-average since 1960. The TFR fell to 1.5 children per woman in 1985 and has remained around that level ever since. Over the past two decades the TFR across the OECD average has converged towards Austrian levels.

Figure 1. In Austria total fertility rates have been below the OECD average over the past decades

Number of children per woman aged 15 to 49, Austria and OECD average, 1960 to 2022

Source: Figure 1.1 in OECD (2024), Society at a Glance 2024, https://stat.link/vxdlnc.

Many factors affect fertility choices, including employment of both men and women, unemployment, financial support for families (e.g. paid parental leave) and childcare supports) and housing costs (Figure 1.7, https://stat.link/8zu7m3 and Figure 1.14, https://stat.link/ois3k8). However other factors such as (financial) uncertainty as well as norms and attitudes also play a role. In many OECD countries, the desire to establish oneself in the labour and housing markets have contributed to a delay of childbearing. In Austria, the mean age of mothers at childbirth rose from 28.2 years in 2000 to 31.2 years in 2022, just above the OECD on average (Figure 1.5, https://stat.link/163n2d).

The fall in TFRs is related to women having fewer children and/or none at all. Childlessness has been on the rise across the OECD, but there is cross-national variation in timing and extent. Long-time series are lacking for Austria, but available data suggest permanent childlessness concerned around 20% of women born in the late 1960s and early 1970s. [Figure 1.3].

How does Austria compare?

Selection of indicators related to the chapter on fertility trends and other social indicators

Source: OECD (2024), Society at a Glance 2024, https://stat.link/vxdlnc.