Accompanying this has been a narrowing of the fertility differential between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women. In the 1960s, Aboriginal fertility, at about 6.0 children per woman, was about twice the rate for total women. Fertility declines for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women over the last 30 years have followed a similar pattern with the sharpest decrease recorded during the 1970s. However, the fertility decline for non-Aboriginal women commenced in the 1960s while for Aboriginal women fertility was largely stable in the 1960s followed by a sharp decline in the early 1970s. In the ten years to 1991, the fertility of both populations has been reasonably stable.
Aboriginal women have children at younger ages than non-Aboriginal women.
Among 20-24 year olds, Aboriginal fertility was about two and a half times higher. The fertility of women aged 30 years and over is similar in both the Aboriginal and total Australian populations. Older women experienced proportionally larger declines than younger women. The smallest fall in relative terms was among the 15-19 years age group, so that the contribution of this group to the total fertility of Aboriginal women has increased relative to that of other age groups. The net effect of this has been a decline in the average age of Aboriginal mothers at child-bearing.