The changing Australian family
The Australian family is steadily shrinking, with data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealing a birth rate drop to an all-time low of 1.5 children per woman. We look at factors behind the declining birth rate and what it’s like to have a big family in 2025.
By Nadia Howland
While the desire for family remains strong, Australians are factoring rising costs, shifting social norms, and economic uncertainty into their family planning.
Younger generations are delaying traditional milestones like marriage, home ownership, and financial stability, and pushing parenthood further into the future. In fact, as the birth rate has been declining, the median age of parenthood has been increasing, sitting at 31.9 for mothers, and 33.8 for fathers.
Many Australians are looking for a level of stability and confidence before pursuing parenthood, and more than half of Australians agree there is an expectation to establish a career and be financially stable before thinking about having children.
"It's one of the great paradoxes of modern Australia," social analyst and demographer, Mark McCrindle, says.
"We're seeing more births than ever, but fewer babies per family—and this shift will reshape society in the decades to come.”
A declining birth rate isn’t just a cosmetic issue. Fertility rates are important because they directly impact the age structure of a population.
A sustained low birth rate leads to an ageing population, shrinking workforce, and increased pressure on government services, particularly healthcare and aged care.
As the number of retirees grows and the working-age population declines, it becomes harder to maintain economic productivity and fund social services through taxation.
This imbalance can lead to labour shortages, slower economic growth, and a heavier financial burden on younger generations.
"Today's birth rate is not enough to sustain our population long-term," McCrindle says.
"Without a major shift in family patterns or migration, we are on track for an inverted population pyramid, with more people over 65 than under 15 by 2026."
According to McCrindle social researcher and trend expert, Ashley Fell, there are several interrelated factors contributing to Australia’s record-low birth rate.
“Culturally, we’ve seen a significant shift in the traditional life trajectory. Younger generations are delaying key milestones such as marriage and parenthood, with many choosing to focus on education, travel, career development, and financial security first,” she explains.
“Increased participation in tertiary education means young adults are studying longer and entering the workforce later, and often with substantial student debt. Rising living costs, particularly housing affordability challenges in our major cities, also make it difficult for younger Australians to feel financially ready to start a family.
“Social trends like later-life partnering, a greater focus on individual aspirations, and even concerns around climate or economic uncertainty are all contributing to fewer children being
born, and at later stages in life.”
Party of seven
While having five children was never on her bingo card, Brisbane mum Katrena says she wouldn’t have it any other way.
She and her husband thought they were done after their third child, but life had other plans. The couple found out they were pregnant with identical twins, and they’re officially considered a ‘big family’.
“We’ve done the minibus, and we get all sorts of comments from people, like ‘Don’t you know how babies are made?’ and ‘How do you afford to keep them?’” Katrena says.
“The most challenging thing about having a big family is organisation, because our girls do a lot of extracurriculars. Also, travel is difficult because everything is based around a family of four. We often have to split up between two hotel rooms.”
In addition to doing their bit to support the population, Katrena says she and her husband are grateful to have their brood.
“Some people can’t have kids or wish they had more. I love that our girls have each other—I think they’ll always be close.”
In addition to financial incentives like the Baby Bonus and Paid Parental Leave, countries around the world are trialling more holistic and structural policies to encourage family formation, Fell says.
These measures seek to address the needs of modern working families, and include:
• Subsidised or free childcare – providing heavily subsidised childcare to reduce the cost burden on working parents.
• Extended parental leave – offering generous, often shared parental leave schemes that support both parents in balancing work and family.
• Tax incentives and housing support – in some parts of the world, governments offer housing grants or tax breaks for young families or those with multiple children.
• Workplace flexibility – encouraging part-time roles, remote work, and flexible hours can help make parenting more manageable alongside career goals.
Improving birth rates isn’t just about financial incentives, however, Fell says it requires creating an environment where starting a family feels achievable and supported.
“Economically, this could mean greater housing affordability, reduced education costs, or expanded childcare support,” she says.
“Socially, it involves shifting workplace cultures to better accommodate parents, especially women, through flexible arrangements, return-to-work support, and gender-equal parenting leave.
“There's also a cultural element—building a narrative that values families and normalises diverse family models, including those who start families later or in non-traditional ways. Ultimately,
reversing the trend will require a coordinated effort across government, business, and society to ensure that aspiring parents feel confident—financially, practically, and socially—to
bring children into the world,” Fell says.
Emma, 45, shares this anecdote of finding out she was pregnant with her twins, who are now 15.
“I always laugh because my parents literally begged us to have kids. We found out we were having twins and everyone was in complete shock. When I told Mum, I saw the colour drain from her face. She said, ‘I’m going to have to quit my job to help you, aren’t I?’ I thought she was going to pass out.
“When the twins were 18 months old, I had to go back to work part-time, so I enrolled them in childcare. Mum offered to help out but I knew it would be too much of an imposition. They wanted to travel and enjoy their retirement. You can’t just handball your kids to your parents and expect them to provide free childcare until they’re in school.”
Emma says she and her husband wanted to have another child after the twins but decided the cost of childcare was too prohibitive.
“Childcare was costing us about the same amount that I was bringing in working three days a week. There was a point where I actually considered giving up my career to have a bigger family, but I knew I would struggle to get a job in my field later on if I did. And these days it’s basically impossible to raise a family on one income,” she says.
Big families were a common product of Australia’s Baby Boom. Karen, 71, was one of seven children.
“Mum was a God-fearing Catholic, and she used to say she would have as many children as the Lord intended,” she explains.
“It was a different time. Women weren’t expected to work outside the home. Older children helped care for younger siblings as they came along and were expected to do a lot more around the house as well. We wore homemade clothes that became hand-me-downs, and you sometimes went to bed still feeling a bit hungry because there were so many mouths to feed. There were no overseas holidays—you were very lucky if your family could afford to visit the beach once or twice a year.
“It’s a different scenario altogether for [the younger] generation. We raised our sons and daughters to have careers. I think there’s a lot of pressure on [them] to live this big wonderful life, and give your kids the best of everything, and I think that’s why people choose to have smaller families.
“You can have one or two kids and live quite comfortably, or you can have three or four and things a lot tougher financially.”
Her husband, Iain, points out that education can also delay childbearing.
“I left school at 16 to work as a mechanic. I was married by 19 and we had our first child, Aimee, two years later. We encouraged her to go to university, and she ended up staying to do her Masters degree. So, she and her circle of friends ended up having children a lot later in life than we did, which I think is a good thing, but it also means you have less time to do that.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if even younger generations skip having kids altogether.”
What do you think? Did you have a big family? Let us know at ourgeneration@nationalseniors.com.au or leave us a message on our socials.
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