The rate of women aged between 15-44 years giving birth is higher than a decade ago, according to this report.

Summary - Mothers at a glance

Women are giving birth later in life

• The average age of all women who gave birth was 30.1 years in 2013, compared with 29.5 in 2003.
• The average age has also increased for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers, from 24.7 in 2003 to 25.3 in 2013.
• The proportion of mothers aged 35 and over has increased from 19% in 2003 to 22% in 2013, while the proportion of mothers aged less than 24 has decreased from 19% to 17%.
• The average age of first time mothers also increased, from 27.8 years in 2003 to 28.6 in 2013.

Most mothers live in Major cities and were born in Australia
Most mothers lived in Major cities (71%) and most were born in Australia (69%)—similar to the proportions of all women of reproductive age in the population.

1 in 25 mothers are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
Around 4.1% of all women who gave birth in 2013 were Indigenous, slightly higher than the proportion of Indigenous women of reproductive age in the population (3.3%).

Indigenous mothers were on average younger than non-Indigenous mothers (25.3 years compared with 30.3).

Babies at a glance
More babies are being born

• There were 309,489 babies born in 2013—an increase of 20% from 256,925 in 2003.
• 307,277 were live births and 2,191 were stillbirths (less than 1%).
• The stillbirth rate of 7 deaths per 1,000 births has not changed substantially since 2003.

Baby boys slightly outnumber baby girls

Slightly more babies were male (51%) than female (49%). The sex ratio, defined as the number of male live born babies per 100 female live born babies, was 106.0.

1 in 20 babies are Aboriginal and/or Torres Straight Islander

Around 1 in 20 babies (5.2% or 16,149) were Indigenous in 2013 (based on Indigenous status of the baby).

3 in 4 babies are born to mothers living in New South Wales, Victoria or Queensland
The proportion of babies born in each state and territory closely reflects the distribution of the total population in 2013 (based on the mother’s state/territory of usual residence).