Qld birth rate falling

THE number of babies born in Queensland is falling as women put education and careers before motherhood.

A small outback area is the home to Queensland’s most procreative women while Brisbane has one of the lowest birthrates in the country.

Mums in the Flinders Shire – west of Townsville and about 18 hours from Brisbane – have on average 4.6 babies each, analysis of newly released national fertility data reveals.

This is more than twice the birthrate of Brisbane, where women have 1.8 babies each.

About 311,270 infants were born in Queensland in the five years to the end of 2017.

This equates to 1.9 children per mother statewide, a slight drop on the previous reporting period when a birthrate of 2.08 was recorded.

The national birthrate also sits at 1.9, the Social Health Atlas of Australia shows.