Jointly holding the state’s highest fertility rate, the number of children born to each mother in the Western District has also increased during the past 10 years.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show the median age for south-west mothers stands at 29.8 years old and the fertility rate at 2.2 babies per woman. 

The latest figures relate to the 2013 calendar year. This compares to a median age of 29.5 for south-west mothers in 2003, when that year’s rate was 2.1 babies per woman. The oldest maternal median average statewide was Melbourne’s inner-southern suburbs at 33.7 years old, while the youngest was the Mallee-Wimmera at 28 years.

Shepparton has Victoria’s highest fertility rate at 2.4 babies per woman while inner Melbourne has the lowest at 1.7 babies per woman.

Adelaide University demography expert Graeme Hugo said Australia’s fertility rate had fallen since the 2008 near-miss recession when the national birth rate peaked at just above two babies per woman. 

Professor Hugo said people with higher incomes tended to have fewer children while people from rural areas tended to have larger families.