Countries by Birth rate, crude (per 1,000 people)
Central African Republic ranks 1st in crude birth rate at 46.358 births per 1,000 people, more than ten times the rate recorded in last-ranked Hong Kong SAR, China at 4.4. The 41.96-point spread across 216 countries reflects the wide divergence in demographic conditions captured by this single measure. South Korea (rank 215, 4.5) and Macao SAR, China (rank 214, 5.5) sit just above Hong Kong, forming a cluster of the world's lowest birth rates.
Ranking 2023
Analysis
Crude birth rate measures the number of live births per 1,000 people in a given year. As defined by the source: 'Crude birth rate indicates the number of live births occurring during the year, per 1,000 population estimated at midyear. Subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate provides the rate of natural increase, which is equal to the rate of population change in the absence of migration.' The metric counts all live births and is expressed as an absolute value per 1,000 midyear population. It does not account for age structure, so populations with more women of reproductive age will naturally produce higher rates independent of individual fertility behavior. The 2023 dataset covers 216 countries, all with data from the last seven years (100% recency), and 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. No extreme outliers were identified at the 3-sigma threshold, and average year-over-year change across the dataset was 2.8%, indicating stability.
All ten top-ranked countries are in sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia. Central African Republic (rank 1, 46.358) leads by a notable margin over Somalia (rank 2, 42.964) and Chad (rank 3, 42.396). Niger (rank 4, 41.892) and Democratic Republic of Congo (rank 5, 41.305) follow closely. Mali (rank 6, 40.029) is the last country above 40. Afghanistan (rank 9, 35.437) is the only non-African country in the top ten, followed by Tanzania (rank 10, 35.222). The top 32 countries all record rates above 30, and every one of them is located in Africa or, in Afghanistan's case, South Asia.
The middle of the ranking shows considerable variety. Uzbekistan (rank 46, 26.465) and Tajikistan (rank 48, 26.124) represent Central Asia in the upper-middle tier. Iraq (rank 51, 25.728) and West Bank and Gaza (rank 44, 27.062) are the highest-ranked Middle Eastern entries. India sits at rank 96 with 16.146, placing it below many smaller developing nations but well above its regional neighbor Sri Lanka (rank 134, 11.2). The United States ranks 152nd at 10.7, close to Ireland (rank 155, 10.3) and the United Kingdom (rank 159, 10.023). At the bottom, Japan (rank 210, 6.0), Puerto Rico (rank 211, 5.8), Ukraine (rank 212, 5.625), San Marino (rank 213, 5.6), Macao (rank 214, 5.5), South Korea (rank 215, 4.5), and Hong Kong (rank 216, 4.4) form a group with rates below 6.5 per 1,000.
Crude birth rate has several limitations as a standalone measure. Because it uses total midyear population as the denominator rather than women of reproductive age, it conflates age-structure effects with actual fertility behavior. A country with an unusually young or old population will have a higher or lower rate regardless of individual reproductive patterns. The metric also says nothing about birth outcomes, infant survival, or household circumstances. Reporting reliability may vary among lower-income countries where civil registration systems are incomplete, meaning some values, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, may rely on survey estimates or model-based interpolation rather than direct registration counts. Migration, which can shift the midyear population denominator substantially, is not captured in the rate itself, as the source note explicitly notes the rate of natural increase assumes the absence of migration.
Methodology
This ranking uses World Bank World Development Indicators indicator SP.DYN.CBRT.IN for data year 2023. The metric is defined as follows: 'Crude birth rate indicates the number of live births occurring during the year, per 1,000 population estimated at midyear. Subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate provides the rate of natural increase, which is equal to the rate of population change in the absence of migration.' Values are expressed as absolute numbers per 1,000 people, with higher values ranked better. The dataset covers 216 countries, all meeting the recency threshold with data from the last seven years (100% coverage). All 216 datapoints are classified as official quality (100%), exceeding the 70% threshold. No extreme outliers were found at the 3-sigma threshold. Year-over-year volatility averaged 2.8%, well below the 50% threshold. The data range runs from 4.40 (Hong Kong SAR, China, rank 216) to 46.36 (Central African Republic, rank 1), a spread of 953.6%. Tied ranks appear at positions 134 (Montenegro, Sri Lanka, Turkiye, all 11.2), 165 (Luxembourg, Sweden, both 9.5), 168 (Belgium, Norway, both 9.4), 170 (Netherlands, North Macedonia, Serbia, all 9.2), 174 (Hungary, Liechtenstein, both 9.1), 176 (Slovak Republic, Switzerland, both 9.0), 187 (Croatia, Germany, both 8.3), 190 (Malta, Portugal, both 8.1), 193 (Estonia, Romania, Slovenia, all 8.0), and 201 (Poland, Singapore, both 7.4).