birth rate
noun
variants
or birthrate
: the ratio between births and individuals in a specified population and time
Examples of birth rate in a Sentence
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John Johnson, a researcher at the Marquette University Law School Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education, recently estimated that the 2025 birth rate marked about a 15% decline since 2020 and about a 29% decline since 2010.
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Rory Linnane, jsonline.com, 23 Jan. 2026
Tokyo’s government has given its employees a four-day week, in part to help turn around the country’s flagging birth rate.
—Prashant Rao, semafor.com, 19 Jan. 2026
China’s birth rate fell last year to its lowest level since 1949, highlighting a deepening demographic struggle for Beijing even as officials roll out new subsidies to encourage couples to have more children.
—Bloomberg, Fortune, 19 Jan. 2026
Beijing — China clocked its lowest birth rate on record in 2025 as its population shrank for the fourth year in a row, deepening a demographic challenge that could drag on the world’s second-largest economy for decades to come.
—Simone McCarthy, CNN Money, 19 Jan. 2026
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Rory Linnane, jsonline.com, 23 Jan. 2026
Tokyo’s government has given its employees a four-day week, in part to help turn around the country’s flagging birth rate.
—Prashant Rao, semafor.com, 19 Jan. 2026
China’s birth rate fell last year to its lowest level since 1949, highlighting a deepening demographic struggle for Beijing even as officials roll out new subsidies to encourage couples to have more children.
—Bloomberg, Fortune, 19 Jan. 2026
Beijing — China clocked its lowest birth rate on record in 2025 as its population shrank for the fourth year in a row, deepening a demographic challenge that could drag on the world’s second-largest economy for decades to come.
—Simone McCarthy, CNN Money, 19 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for birth rate
Cite this Entry
“Birth rate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/birth%20rate. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
birthrate
noun
birth·rate
-ˌrāt 
: the number of births for every hundred or every thousand persons in a given area or group during a given time
Medical Definition
birth rate
noun
variants
or birthrate
: the ratio between births and individuals in a specified population and time often expressed as number of live births per hundred or per thousand population per year
called also natality
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