General fertility rate

Definition

Conceptual definition

The general fertility rate of a population over a given time period measures the ratio of the number of live births over that time period to the number of women who are in their childbearing years during that time period, and also divides by the length of the period.

Standard operationalization

The general fertility rate is operationalized as follows:

• The time period is chosen as one year.
• Childbearing years is operationalized using the age range of either 15-44 or 15-49 (the convention varies). A convention needs to be set regarding the date on which the woman's age is measured within the time period of the year. CHECK THIS: The general convention is to look at women whose age on their birthday anniversary within the year is within the childbearing years age range.
• The ratio is scaled to a denominator of 1000.

Explicitly, the general fertility rate is stated as the ratio of the number of live births in a year for every 1000 women who are in their childbearing years during that year.