The CZSO published detailed data on fertility from the Census 2021

30 June 2022

Women with two children are represented in population most frequently, average number of children born to a woman is 1.57. The CZSO supplemented data on the number of children born alive with the classification by women's age, educational attainment and marital status.

Women with two children make up the largest share of the population: 1.9 million out of a total of 4.4 million women aged 15 and over for whom data on the number of children were identified in the Census. Detailed data show that more than three-fifths of them are women aged 50 and older. A smaller proportion are women whose reproductive age, defined as 15-49 years, is not yet complete, so they may still have more children.

The average number of children born alive per woman aged 15 years and over with a known number of children was 1.57. When taking account of women with children only, there are on average two children per woman. However, different groups of women contribute differently to the overall figure.

“In the case of married, divorced or widowed women, there are almost two children for every woman, while for single women it is about four times less. Women with higher levels of education have fewer children on average than women with no more than primary or secondary education,” explains Robert Šanda, Director of the Population Statistics Department and substantive coordinator of the 2021 Census.

"When evaluating the data, it should be taken into account that not only the number of children, but also marital status and educational attainment are significantly related to age. For example, of the nearly 1 million childless women, more than 60% are aged 15-29 and more than 80% are single; it can therefore be assumed that this figure will change in the future for most of them.  In the case of education, however, even when differences between age groups or generations are taken into account, it is evident that the number of children born decreases with a woman's higher level of education," added Robert Šanda.

Selected published results in the form of tables and cartograms to the level of regions are presented on the website www.scitani.cz, and more detailed data is available in the Public Database of the CZSO. The complete data can be downloaded in open CSV format on the Census 2021 Results - Open Data page (Czech only).

Contact:
Jan Cieslar
Spokesman of the Czech Statistical Office
mobile: + 420 604 149 190
e-mail: jan.cieslar@czso.cz