Australia's mothers and babies

Where mothers live can impact on their access to services. The data visualisation below presents statistics for women who gave birth by state or territory where a mother usually lived in 2020, by various geographies.

The birth rate varies by state and territory, but overall birth rates have decreased over time for all jurisdictions. The greatest decrease in birth rate was seen for Queensland (from 66 per 1,000 women in 2010 to 56 per 1,000 women in 2020) followed by New South Wales (64 to 55), Victoria (63 to 54), the Northern Territory (72 to 65), the Australian Capital Territory (69 to 63), South Australia (61 to 55), Tasmania (63 to 58) and Western Australia (64 to 59).

Where a mother lives can differ from where she gives birth. The data visualisation below presents data for 2020 by the state or territory where a mother gave birth (hospital sector, Indigenous status, maternal age, parity, and patient election status) and where she lived (remoteness area and socioeconomic status). Click the trend button to see how data has changed over an 11-year period (where available).

Understanding differences between states and territories is important for planning health service delivery. Some groups of mothers are more likely to be overrepresented within the state or territory they gave birth in, when compared with the contribution of that jurisdiction to the overall proportion of mothers.

It is also important to consider the socioeconomic status and remoteness area in which the mother lives (based on state or territory of the mother’s usual residence).

For more information on births by state and territory see National Perinatal Data Collection annual update data table 1.1.