The average number of babies Australian women are having has fallen to the lowest level in 10 years - as low as it was when the federal government introduced a baby bonus to boost population growth.  
The national fertility rate has dropped to 1.8 children per woman, down from 1.88 children. 
"This rate has been declining since 2008, though not reaching the low recorded in 2001," said AJ Lanyon, the regional director at the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
"There was a strong pattern in our major cities where the highest birth rates were in outer suburbs and very low rates in the inner city. These inner city areas had high proportions of younger people, but few babies."
Altogether, 299,700 births were registered in Australia in 2014, down from 308,100 in 2013.
The country's fertility rate sat at two children per woman from 2007 to 2010. This was the first time since 1977 the fertility rate reached two children.
However, it has all been downhill since 2010, despite the introduction of government-funded paid parental leave in early 2011. 
The biggest decline in births is in New South Wales, which saw a 9.3 per cent decline in 2014 compared with 2013. Tasmania and the Northern Territory also saw a slight decrease in the number of births, while Western Australia has enjoyed a 2.6 per cent increase in the number of babies born. 
Women aged between 30 and 34 were the most fertile, recording 120 babies per 1000. They were followed by women aged 25 to 29, with 95 babies per 1000. 
Teenagers and women over 40 now have roughly the same fertility rate - 12.9 babies and 14.4 babies per 1000 women respectively. This is a historical low for teen pregnancies, which fell from a peak of 55 babies per 1000 girls in 1971.  
While the gross number of babies continues to rise, the increasing population means the fertility rate has been falling.
With the baby-boomer generation now reaching older age, this low fertility rate causes potential population replacement problems for the government.