What is referred to as the total fertility rate (TFR)?

The total fertility rate (TFR) is defined as the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime, assuming that she experiences the exact current age-specific fertility rates through her lifetime and survives from birth through the end of her reproductive years. This measure is crucial in demography because it helps to gauge population growth or decline and reproductive behavior within a society.

By focusing on the average number of children born to a woman, TFR encapsulates both the current fertility patterns and the potential reproductive behaviors of women in a population, making it a vital statistic for understanding broader social trends related to family structure, economic factors, and population policies.