Birth Rates in WA plummet: ABS stats show West Aussies are putting off having kids

West Australians are putting off having kids, with new figures showing the number of births last year was the lowest in nearly 20 years.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for the December quarter show 30,545 babies were born in WA last year, down from 32,031 the previous year. By comparison, 35,429 babies were born in WA nine years ago .

The fact that West Australians are baulking at having babies is in line with national trends.

ABS statistics show there were 286,998 births registered in Australia in 2023, resulting in a total fertility rate of 1.50 babies per woman — a record low.

WA’s fertility rate has now reached a record low of 1.57 babies per woman.

WA Senator Dean Smith said he believes cost-of-living pressures were affecting couples’ decisions to have children.

He pointed to huge increases to Perth’s median house price — jumping from $251,000 to $781,000 since 2022, according to REIWA data; and rents for a median-priced house now at $685 a week — as two major cost-of-living hikes.

“An Econnex analysis of WA power bills for 2025-26 found a typical household using 5700kWh annually will pay just over $2200 a year,” Senator Smith said.

“Costs specific to raising children are similarly impacted, something reflected in a July 2024 survey by Canstar Blue, which gathered insights from 2356 Australian parents and found the average monthly cost of raising a child is $1073 — or $12,876 a year.

“These financial pressures have been a significant factor in many Western Australians delaying starting a family, increasing the size of their family, or choosing not to have children at all.”

The ABS data also showed WA had the largest annual population growth rate of any Australian State or Territory last year — with a growth rate of 2.4 per cent.

But that wasn’t due to West Australians having babies.

The growth rate was largely attributed to overseas and interstate migration, accounting for about 82 per cent of WA’s population growth last year.

The natural increase to the State’s population, which factors in births and deaths, sat at only 2602 in 2024, compared with 5298 in 2014.

“It is worth noting that the natural increase of the population in WA during the December 2024 quarter was just 2602 — the lowest quarterly increase recorded by the ABS since the June 1981 quarter,” Senator Smith said.