Definition: Completed fertility

Demography

The mean number of children born to women of a given generation at the end of their childbearing years. This is calculated by adding the fertility rates by age of the mother observed for successive years, when the cohort has reached the age in question (in general, only ages between 15 and 49 years are considered). In practice, the fertility rates for older women can be estimated using the rates observed for previous generations, without waiting for the cohort to reach the end of the reproductive period.