World Fertility Data 2012

World Fertility Data 2012 provides a comparable and up-to-date set of national data on fertility and the timing of childbearing for all countries and areas of the world.

The data base contains data on six key indicators:

• Annual number of live births and Crude birth rate
• Age-specific fertility rates, Total fertility and Mean age at childbearing
• Children ever born

For each of these indicators and to the extent that data are available, data are presented for five reference dates: 1970, 1985, 1995, 2005 and the most recent data available. Major sources of data on fertility and the timing of childbearing presented in World Fertility Data 2012 are civil registration systems, sample surveys and censuses. Information on the definition of each indicator, data sources and criteria for data source selection, limitations and data coverage is provided in the metadata files.

National data on fertility and the timing of childbearing reported in World Fertility Data 2012 differ from estimates produced by the United Nations Population Division and published in the World Population Prospects. The latter are best estimates based on all available demographic data and a cohort-component method used for estimation and projection. For further details on fertility estimates from the World Population Prospects, see: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2011). World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision. http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/index.htm.