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 shows the percentage of Australian women aged 40 to 44

according to

Linking Words

the number of

children

Use synonyms

they had given birth to, between 1981 and 2006.

Overall

Linking Words

, women with two

children

Use synonyms

consistently recorded the largest share over the period,

whereas

Linking Words

that of those with no

children

Use synonyms

or one child increased over time. The proportion of women with no

children

Use synonyms

grew gradually from 8.5% in 1981 to 15.9% in 2006.

Similarly

Linking Words

, the figure for one child rose from 7.6% in 1981, the lowest proportion in that year, to 13.2% in the final year.

In contrast

Linking Words

, the two-child group not only remained the most common throughout the period but

also

Linking Words

grew steadily, ending at 38.3% in 2006.

On the other hand

Linking Words

, the three-child group slipped marginally to roughly 27% in 1986, before falling

further

Linking Words

to 21.5% by the end of the period.

Although

Linking Words

the four-child-plus category accounted for the second largest in the initial year, it dropped sharply to 18.9% in 1986 and

then

Linking Words

to 13.1% in 1996. By 2006,

this

Linking Words

group represented the least common category, standing at just 11%.