Canada recorded its lowest ever fertility rate for the second year in a row in 2023, according to Statistics Canada.

The country recorded a rate of 1.26 children born per woman, according to the agency, with British Columbia having the nation’s lowest fertility rate at one child per woman.

While the number of births stayed stable compared to 2022, at around 350,000, Statistics Canada says the lower fertility rate is due to the increase in the number of women of childbearing age living in the country in 2023.

“Canada has now joined the group of ‘lowest-low’ fertility countries, including South Korea, Spain, Italy and Japan, with 1.3 children per woman or less,” the agency said in a Wednesday statement. “In comparison, the total fertility rate for the United States was 1.62 per woman in 2023.”

Ten of the 13 provinces and territories had their lowest birth rates on record, according to Statistics Canada.

The agency added that the rate of premature births in 2023, at 8.3 per cent, was the highest recorded in the past 50 years.

It says that rate could be due to the higher numbers of older women giving birth, as the “risk of a premature birth increases as the age of the mother increases.”

The agency says 26.5 per cent of new mothers were 35 or older in 2023, compared to 10.7 per cent in 1993. The average age of childbearing was 31.7 years in 2023.

Affordability a major factor, doctor says

Dr. Renée Hall, a clinical associate professor at the University of B.C. and a co-medical director at Willow Reproductive Centre, said the statistics show that young people aren’t comfortable to have children when they want to.

With the high cost of living in Canada, and B.C. in particular, Hall says many people don’t feel comfortable to have kids without economic and housing stability.

“There’s such a massive economic impact [with] what’s happened over the last number of years with COVID and our inflation rates and the housing crisis, that I’m not surprised that young people are delaying having children or potentially not even able to have children at all by the time they’re economically able to,” she told CBC News.

Dr. Beth Taylor, another UBC clinical associate professor and co-founder of Olive Fertility Centre, said she was seeing an increasing amount of women waiting until their late 30s and 40s to have children.

“We’re also noticing more and more people coming in to freeze eggs, indicating that there’s a desire for people to have children, but just not right now,” she said.

“I think people are wanting to preserve their fertility in hopes that maybe one day in the future their situation will be in a better place.”

Hall and Taylor both warn, however, that even the most advanced fertility techniques cannot help women past a certain age.

“Use contraception and be careful and follow these guidelines to help you not have a child when it’s not right for you,” Taylor said. “But don’t wait too long because there is a window in which you can have kids.”