SYDNEY -- Australia risks a permanent birth rate decline, as soaring home prices and rising living costs push fertility levels to a record low, experts say.
In 2023, the country registered 286,998 births, down 4.2% from the previous year and the lowest number since 2006, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced this week. The drop lowered the fertility rate -- the average number of births per woman during her reproductive years -- to 1.5 babies, the lowest since records began in 1935.
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