Birth rate

"The birth rate is a rate used in demographics to indicate the number of live births during a year per thousand inhabitants of a particular population. The birth rate is often considered a good indicator of a country's level of development. Thus, a birth rate below or close to 10 ‰ is traditionally characteristic of a rich country, while in developing countries the birth rate is usually much higher and can even be close to 50 ‰. Lately, however, there are exceptions at both ends, with developed countries that have increased their birth rates either by immigration, or by birth policies that encourage it, and poor countries that have very low birth rates. This trend, then, may tend to mimic what has already occurred with mortality rates, which historically have also been much higher in poor countries, but which are equaling in recent decades."