Total fertility rate of Belgium 1800-2020

The fertility rate of a country is the average number of children that women from that country will have throughout their reproductive years. Between 1800 and 1830, Belgium's fertility rate dropped from 4.9 to 4.7 children per woman, before increasing to five children per woman in the decade following Belgium's independence in 1831, and then dropping again to 4.3 in 1855. After rising to 4.9 in 1875, the fertility rate then dropped in a very consistent gradient, reaching just below two in 1945. In contrast to the fertility rates of the neighboring France and Netherlands, this data shows that Belgium did not experience an increase after the First World War, despite being heavily involved. Belgium did however experience a baby boom following the Second World War, where the fertility rate increased to 2.7 in the late 1960s, before dropping to 1.6 in 1990, and it has remained between this number and 1.8 over the last thirty years.