The table below presents the number of children ever born to women aged 40-44 years in Australia for each year the information was collected since 1981.

The table presents data on the number of children born to Australian women aged 40–44 years in 1981, 1986, 1996, and 2006.

Overall, two-child families became increasingly common over the period, while the proportion of women with three or more children declined. Both childlessness and having only one child rose steadily.

In 1981, women in this age group were only slightly more likely to have had two children (29%) than three (27.4%) or four or more (27.6%). By 1986, the gap had widened, with 35.6% having two children, compared with 27% having three and 18.9% having four or more.

In both 1996 and 2006, the proportion with two children remained stable at around 38%, while the share with three or more children fell further. By 2006, 38.3% had two children compared with just 21.5% with three or more. Over the same period, the percentage of women with only one child rose from 7.6% in 1981 to 13.2% in 2006, while childlessness increased from 8.5% to 15.9%.