⬆️ Africa's High Fertility Rates Signal the Continent's Population Boom Ahead

What We’re Showing

This graphic ranks the top 20 countries with the highest fertility rates as of 2025. 

Data is sourced from UN World Population Prospects 2024.

Skip to the last section for an explanation of what fertility rates are and why they’re tracked.

Africa's Boom Has Only Just Started

The countries with the highest fertility rates (# of children born to a woman in her lifetime) are nearly all in Africa.

Why?

Limited contraception, high child mortality, economic and cultural factors, and lower female education all play a role.

Children are perceived as a source of future support, which leads to a rapidly growing population.

What is Fertility Rate?

The fertility rate is the average number of children born per woman of child-bearing age in a country.

2.1 children per woman, is the "replacement rate," which keeps the population stable by replacing both parents and accounting for infant mortality.

(Anything higher leads to population growth.)

However, this assumes no migration and that mortality rates stay constant (no sudden famine, disease, or war).