| In a breakdown of figures issued to Dundee-based MSP Marlyn Glen, it was shown the fertility rate for women in the age group 40 to 44 alone has trebled in Dundee and more than trebled in Angus since the 1980s.
Meanwhile, the fertility rate for women in the age group 35 to 39 has doubled in Angus and almost trebled in Dundee over the past 20 years. In both Dundee and Angus, the fertility rate of women in the age group 30 to 34 has increased by nearly half since the 1980s.
Answers given to Ms Glen to two of her questions at the Scottish Parliament show how childbearing decisions have changed amongst women in Dundee and Angus in a series of age groups since the 1980s.
The average age at which mothers give birth in Dundee and Angus has risen by two years in the past two decades.
In 1985, the average age of the mother at birth in Dundee in 1985 was 25.3. By 2005 this had risen to 27.7. In Angus, the average age of the mother at birth in 1985 was 26.6. By 2005 this had risen to 29.0.
Other major points to emerge by comparing age specific fertility rates for Dundee and Angus in 2005 and 1985 are that the fertility rate for women in Dundee in the age group 20 to 24 has dropped by more than 40% of what it was in the 1980s, while in Angus the drop was over one-fifth.
Moreover, the fertility rate for women in Dundee in the age group 25 to 29 is now three-quarters of what it was in the 1980s. In Angus it is now more than four-fifths what it was in the 1980s. |
