Demographer. Former Professor of Demography at Macquarie University, Sydney. Interested in demographic trends and policy issues. Census.
Sydney
Joined July 2009
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"It is important that public discussion and policy relating to fertility levels is founded on an understanding of the interrelationships between fertility and population growth ... that considers potential effects of non-zero levels of migration"
My paper
genus.springeropen.com/artic…
Nick Parr retweeted
Australia's total fertility rate was 1.5 babies per woman in 2025 - the second lowest on record (but up a little from 2024).
New Zealand's rate has actually been higher than 🇦🇺 for most of the past 100 years, partly reflecting higher fertility rates among Māori & Pacific women.
Australia’s Total #Fertility rate rose slightly to 1.497 in 2025.
The increase was due to increases in Age-Specific Fertility Rates between aged 25 and 40. This represents a slight younging of mother’s age.
Most of the increase in Australia’s number of births was in the state of New South Wales. Some of the change for NSW may be an artefact of improved processing speed for birth registrations.
Total #Fertility Rate by mother’s country of birth #Australia 2025
Australia 1.61
All Overseas 1.25
UK 1.34
New Zealand 1.61
India 1.41
China 0.78
Philippines 1.05
Note: TFRs of some overseas-born groups reduced by large no of temporary visa holders in population denominator.
Nick Parr retweeted
"South Korea emerges as the best-performing advanced economy since 2019 if you adjust for population growth, followed by Greece. The US slips to third place" giftarticle.ft.com/giftartic…
Nick Parr retweeted
Gross childcare prices (provider prices) keep rising. 56.7% above the ABS CPI growth since 2010. About 2.6% pa in real terms. Gotta wonder why wages in this industry need to be subsidised when prices have increased well above inflation (particularly in recent years beyond quality changes).
Iceland, J. Has low fertility become a polarised issue?
researchgate.net/publication…
Nick Parr retweeted
The collapse in violent crime over three decades has been one of the most striking developments of my lifetime.
News is about what’s going wrong, and rightly so. But the bigger picture also matters
From today’s figures:-
Nick Parr retweeted
Europe’s abortion rates fell and converged over recent decades despite differing institutions and social norms. Declines were largest in Eastern Europe and among women with children. That convergence now appears to be ending: since 2021, rates have surged in several European countries.
Our new working paper with @MorvaiSzabo, @adameczanna, @flvcav, @jessica_nisen, @sljitka, @SofiaTromm is out!
#demography #fertilty #abortion #Poland #Germany
kti.krtk.hu/wp-content/uploa…
Nick Parr retweeted
In migration-nations (countries that deliberately import worker that are more educated that locals) first and second generation migrant kids record higher PISA scores that the kids of locals. In Australia the trend is particularly strong. To me this is just one variation of educated parents push their kids to be educated. Source: buff.ly/49xhLvS
Nick Parr retweeted
Budapest’s total fertility rate fell below one child per woman, reaching just 0.98 in 2025, compared with Hungary’s national average of 1.31. Even the county with the highest total fertility rate remained below 1.7.
#demography #fertility #Budapest
Nick Parr retweeted
10,151 deaths were registered in England and Wales in the week ending 2 October 2026.
The number of deaths registered in Week 40:
· 5.0% lower than expected (537 fewer deaths)
· 10.5% involved influenza or pneumonia (1,063 deaths)
Dashboard ➡️ ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationa…
Nick Parr retweeted
Child mortality has declined in all world regions.
In 1950, almost one in four children worldwide died before their fifth birthday. In Africa, one in three children died.
The chart shows the change since then. In every region, the mortality rate of children has declined.
In Africa and Oceania, the child mortality rate declined 5-fold, in Asia 10-fold, and in Europe about 27-fold.
Progress was not always steady. The sharp spike in Asia around 1960 was due to the “Great Leap Forward” famine in Mao’s China, the deadliest famine in recorded history.
And the progress is far from finished. The global average has declined to 3.5%, but this still means that about 4.7 million children younger than five years died in 2025 — 13,000 children every single day.
(written by @MaxCRoser)
Nick Parr retweeted
In the UK, around 4.9 million people aged 18 years and over (9.8%) smoked cigarettes in 2025.
This is the lowest proportion of current smokers since records began in 2011, based on our estimates from the Annual Population Survey (APS).
Read more ➡️ ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationa…
ALT Multiple line charts showing smoking prevalence continued to fall in all countries of the UK in 2025.
Nick Parr retweeted
Are We Making Progress in the War on Cancer?
The news on cancer is good - even though cancer deaths are rising
stevestewartwilliams.com/p/a…
Counts of annual deaths rising in Australia.
smh.com.au/national/death-ra…
Numbers of #Australians in older (80+) age groups are expected to increase rapidly as the post WW2 Baby Boomers enter this age range.
Note the especially rapid growth in age groups filled by 1946-51 birth cohort (80-84 over 2026-31, 85-89 over 2031-36 etc.)
#auspol #Demography
