The bar chart compares the ages when women had their first child in Australia from 1966 to 2006. Overall, there was a growing trend of later parenthood. While there was a sharp drop in the proportion of women who gave birth at the age of 19 and 20-24, an opposite trend was observed among women aged between 30 and over 40s, with the biggest rises seen among women in their 30s. By contrast, after an initial increase in the percentage of women who decided to have a baby in their late 20s, the figure fell in 2006.
In 1966, an overwhelming majority of women leaned towards earlier parenthood with over 60% falling within the 20-24 age bracket. However, this percentage saw a 20-point fall by 1986, further dropping to 30% in 2006. 25-29 was the second most common age for Australian women to give birth in 1966, with little under 40% of them choosing this age to be the most appropriate. After this, despite a considerable rise to over 50% in 1986, the percentage dropped to around 40% in 2006. Similar to women in 20-25 age bracket, those aged under 19 experienced a fall in numbers over the years from an initial 35% to around 21% in 1986 before finishing at a mere 11%.
The remaining age categories, however, experienced consistent rises in their figures. Women in the 30 to 34 and 35 to 39 age groups followed a similar trajectory, with their respective figures standing at 12% and 9% in 1966 and increasing to around 19% and 15% in 1986. After two decades, they maintained their trajectory as the proportion of women giving birth in their early 30s reached a staggering 50% and those from the 35-39 age bracket doubled. Women who gave birth to their firstborns after the age of 40, on the other hand, showed a modest 2% in 1966, a figure, which slowly went up to 4% in 1986, finishing at 5% in 2006.