Global Fertility League Table: Top 100 Countries by Total Fertility Rate, 2025
How the 2025 global fertility league splits the world into high- and low-birth regimes
This section introduces total fertility rate (TFR) as the core measure behind the “Global Fertility League Table” and highlights the ten countries where women still have around five to six children on average – in a world where the global mean has fallen close to two births per woman.
TFR condenses age-specific birth rates into a single number: the average number of children a woman would have over her lifetime if current age-specific fertility rates remained constant. Values above 4 are now rare and concentrated almost entirely in low-income Sub-Saharan Africa, while most high-income economies have slipped well below the replacement threshold of 2.1 births per woman.
The gap between the global “high fertility club” and the “low fertility club” has never been wider: a woman in Niger or Somalia has on average almost eight times as many children as a woman in South Korea, Spain or Italy.
Table 1. Top 10 countries by total fertility rate (TFR), ≈2024–2025
Countries are ranked by the latest available TFR estimates (primarily 2023–2024), rounded to one decimal for comparability.
| Rank | Country | TFR (births per woman) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niger | ≈ 6.1 |
| 2 | Somalia | ≈ 6.1 |
| 3 | Chad | ≈ 6.0 |
| 4 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | ≈ 5.5 |
| 5 | Mali | ≈ 5.4 |
| 6 | Central African Republic | ≈ 5.3 |
| 7 | Angola | ≈ 5.3 |
| 8 | Benin | ≈ 5.2 |
| 9 | Uganda | ≈ 5.1 |
| 10 | Burundi | ≈ 4.9 |
Note: Values are indicative and harmonised from multiple official databases for 2022–2024. Minor discrepancies versus single-source country profiles reflect rounding and different base years. Global TFR over the same period is around 2.2–2.3 births per woman.
Chart 1. High-fertility leaders compared with a world that is close to replacement level
Bar chart of TFR for the ten highest-fertility countries, with a reference line for the global average (≈2.2). Values are rounded and harmonised across UN and World Bank sources; small deviations from national statistics are expected.
Inside the global fertility league: age structures and the geography of demographic extremes
Moving beyond the top ten, the full fertility league table covers 100 countries across all income groups. The picture is one of sharp divergence: a cluster of low-income economies where large families remain the norm, a broad middle of countries that are close to but still above replacement, and an expanding group of “ultra-low fertility” societies in Europe and East Asia.
Two complementary indicators help interpret these rankings. The crude birth rate (births per 1,000 people per year) captures the flow of new births in each calendar year, while the share of the population under age 15 reflects the cumulative imprint of many years of high or low fertility. High TFR almost always coincides with both high birth rates and a very young age structure.
In high-fertility countries, children under 15 often make up 40–50% of the population, whereas in low-fertility economies that share can fall below 15%. The same number of children per woman therefore implies very different fiscal and social challenges depending on where in the league a country sits.
Table 2. Global fertility league – 60-country excerpt from the Top-100 ranking
Countries are ordered from higher to lower TFR. The first column encodes the approximate rank in the 100-country table. Values are rounded and should be read as indicative.
| Country (approx. rank) | TFR (births per woman) | Population under 15 (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Niger | ≈ 6.1 | ≈ 49 |
| 2. Somalia | ≈ 6.1 | ≈ 47 |
| 3. Chad | ≈ 6.0 | ≈ 46 |
| 4. DR Congo | ≈ 5.5 | ≈ 46 |
| 5. Mali | ≈ 5.4 | ≈ 47 |
| 6. Central African Republic | ≈ 5.3 | ≈ 45 |
| 7. Angola | ≈ 5.3 | ≈ 47 |
| 8. Benin | ≈ 5.2 | ≈ 44 |
| 9. Uganda | ≈ 5.1 | ≈ 48 |
| 10. Nigeria | ≈ 4.6 | ≈ 43 |
| 11. Mozambique | ≈ 4.5 | ≈ 44 |
| 12. Tanzania | ≈ 4.4 | ≈ 44 |
| 13. Zambia | ≈ 4.3 | ≈ 45 |
| 14. Guinea | ≈ 4.2 | ≈ 43 |
| 15. Sudan | ≈ 4.2 | ≈ 41 |
| 16. Burkina Faso | ≈ 4.1 | ≈ 44 |
| 17. Madagascar | ≈ 3.9 | ≈ 41 |
| 18. Cameroon | ≈ 3.8 | ≈ 41 |
| 19. Senegal | ≈ 3.8 | ≈ 41 |
| 20. Yemen | ≈ 3.7 | ≈ 39 |
| 25. Afghanistan | ≈ 3.6 | ≈ 44 |
| 28. Pakistan | ≈ 3.3 | ≈ 35 |
| 30. Kenya | ≈ 3.2 | ≈ 39 |
| 32. Ghana | ≈ 3.1 | ≈ 37 |
| 34. Egypt | ≈ 2.8 | ≈ 33 |
| 35. Philippines | ≈ 2.7 | ≈ 31 |
| 36. Bolivia | ≈ 2.6 | ≈ 31 |
| 38. Guatemala | ≈ 2.5 | ≈ 33 |
| 40. India | ≈ 2.0 | ≈ 26 |
| 41. Indonesia | ≈ 2.1 | ≈ 25 |
| 42. Bangladesh | ≈ 2.0 | ≈ 26 |
| 44. Morocco | ≈ 2.3 | ≈ 27 |
| 45. Algeria | ≈ 2.8 | ≈ 29 |
| 46. Iran | ≈ 1.9 | ≈ 23 |
| 47. Turkey | ≈ 1.9 | ≈ 23 |
| 48. Brazil | ≈ 1.6 | ≈ 23 |
| 49. Mexico | ≈ 1.7 | ≈ 26 |
| 50. South Africa | ≈ 2.3 | ≈ 28 |
| 70. United States | ≈ 1.6 | ≈ 18 |
| 72. United Kingdom | ≈ 1.6 | ≈ 17 |
| 73. France | ≈ 1.7 | ≈ 18 |
| 74. Sweden | ≈ 1.7 | ≈ 18 |
| 75. Norway | ≈ 1.6 | ≈ 18 |
| 76. Canada | ≈ 1.5 | ≈ 16 |
| 77. Australia | ≈ 1.6 | ≈ 18 |
| 78. Germany | ≈ 1.4 | ≈ 14 |
| 79. Netherlands | ≈ 1.5 | ≈ 16 |
| 80. Spain | ≈ 1.3 | ≈ 15 |
| 81. Italy | ≈ 1.2 | ≈ 13 |
| 82. Portugal | ≈ 1.4 | ≈ 14 |
| 83. Poland | ≈ 1.2 | ≈ 15 |
| 84. Russia | ≈ 1.4 | ≈ 18 |
| 85. Ukraine | ≈ 1.1 | ≈ 15 |
| 86. China | ≈ 1.2 | ≈ 17 |
| 87. Thailand | ≈ 1.2 | ≈ 17 |
| 88. Vietnam | ≈ 1.8 | ≈ 23 |
| 89. Japan | ≈ 1.3 | ≈ 12 |
| 90. South Korea | ≈ 0.7 | ≈ 12 |
| 91. Singapore | ≈ 1.0 | ≈ 13 |
| 92. Hong Kong SAR | ≈ 0.9 | ≈ 13 |
| 93. Taiwan | ≈ 0.9 | ≈ 13 |
Note: The full StatRanker dataset contains 100 countries; this table shows a 60-country excerpt to keep the page compact. Indicators are harmonised around 2022–2024 using UN and World Bank data. The youth share (“under 15”) is rounded to the nearest whole percent.
“Low fertility club” vs “high fertility club”
The league table naturally falls into two extremes. At the top, high-fertility countries with TFR above 4 are almost exclusively low-income economies in Sub-Saharan Africa plus a handful of fragile states elsewhere. Their populations are young, school-age cohorts are growing quickly and the dependency ratio is driven by children rather than retirees.
At the other end, the “low fertility club” consists of high- and upper-middle-income economies with TFR below 1.5 – South Korea, much of Southern and Eastern Europe, as well as parts of East Asia. Here the main policy concern is ageing: shrinking cohorts of young people must support rising numbers of older adults, putting pressure on pensions, healthcare and public finances.
Between these poles lies a large group of countries – India, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Morocco and many others – where fertility has converged near or slightly below replacement. They will enjoy a temporary “demographic dividend” as the working-age share peaks, but will also age rapidly in the coming decades if fertility continues to drift down.
Chart 2. Total fertility rate vs GDP per capita (PPP): a steep negative slope
The scatter plot below illustrates the classic inverse relationship between fertility and income: high-fertility countries tend to be poor, while the lowest fertility rates are found in rich economies.
Each point represents one country (selected examples). The x-axis is GDP per capita in purchasing power parity (PPP, international dollars), the y-axis is TFR. Values reference the 2022–2023 window and are rounded; the cloud of points is illustrative rather than a full universe of countries.
What the fertility league table means for policy, growth and inequality
The 2025 global fertility league table is not just a curiosity about where families are larger or smaller. It is a map of future labour supply, pension pressures and educational demand. High-fertility countries will add large cohorts of young people to the labour market for decades to come, while low-fertility economies are already grappling with shrinking workforce-to-retiree ratios.
For the high-fertility club, the central question is whether rapid population growth will translate into a demographic dividend or a demographic burden. Without sustained investment in education, health, gender equality and job creation, a very young age structure can amplify unemployment, instability and outward migration rather than supporting higher growth.
In the low-fertility club, policy debates are increasingly about how to stabilise population size and maintain living standards with fewer births. Responses range from pronatalist packages (tax breaks, childcare subsidies, parental leave) to more controversial options such as raising retirement ages or expanding labour migration. None of these tools is a quick fix, and their effectiveness depends heavily on social norms and labour-market institutions.
- High-fertility economies need to front-load investment in children and youth – especially girls’ education and reproductive health – to convert a potential youth bulge into higher productivity rather than under-employment.
- Middle-income countries with near-replacement fertility should treat the current window as a one-off demographic dividend. Reforms in pensions, skills and innovation are easier before ageing accelerates.
- Low-fertility economies cannot rely on financial incentives alone to raise births. Evidence suggests that affordable housing, flexible work, gender-equal care arrangements and predictable family policies matter at least as much as cash transfers.
- Across all groups, data quality and transparency are critical. Small changes in TFR around 1.3–1.8 have large implications for long-term age structures, so regular updates and harmonised methods are essential for planning.
The league table therefore should not be read as a ranking of “success” or “failure”, but as a starting point for understanding the very different constraints and opportunities that demographic change creates in each country group.
Primary data sources and technical notes
The indicators and rankings used in this StatRanker article are derived from the following official and research datasets. Values have been harmonised to a common 2022–2024 window where possible; minor differences with single-country profiles reflect rounding and methodological updates.
-
United Nations – World Population Prospects 2024 (UN DESA Population
Division). Provides country-level estimates and projections of total fertility rate,
crude birth rate and age structure used to benchmark global averages and regional
patterns.
https://population.un.org/wpp/ -
United Nations – World Fertility 2024. Analytical report on long-term
fertility trends, including the global decline from around five births per woman in the
1960s to just above two today, and the growing share of countries below replacement level.
https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/content/world-fertility-report -
World Bank – World Development Indicators (WDI). Source for
country-level series on total fertility rate (SP.DYN.TFRT.IN), crude birth rate
(SP.DYN.CBRT.IN) and the share of population ages 0–14 (SP.POP.0014.TO.ZS), as well as
GDP per capita, PPP (NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD).
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN -
Our World in Data – Fertility rate and fertility vs income. Provides
long-run series on TFR, cross-country scatter plots of TFR vs GDP per capita and
downloadable data used to calibrate the income–fertility relationship in Chart 2.
https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate -
CIA World Factbook – Total fertility rate & birth rate comparisons.
Used as a supplementary reference for the ordering of very high-fertility countries in
Sub-Saharan Africa and for cross-checking crude birth rate levels.
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/total-fertility-rate/ -
National statistical offices and specialised demographic reports
(e.g. Statistics Korea, Eurostat/ONS, national population institutes). These sources
inform discussion of “ultra-low fertility” cases such as South Korea, Italy and
Germany, and are used qualitatively rather than as primary input to the league table.
https://kostat.go.kr
This article is intended for analytical and comparative purposes. For programme targeting or legal and fiscal decisions, readers should always consult the latest country-specific statistical releases and technical notes from the original providers.
Download data & charts archive (ZIP)
This ZIP archive contains the tabular data and static charts used in the article “Global Fertility League Table: Top 100 Countries by Total Fertility Rate, 2025”: Top 10 TFR ranking, 60-country excerpt from the full Top-100 table, and the datasets behind the TFR vs GDP per capita scatter plot.
