Fertility & birth rates in China and Sierra Leone

Fertility rate in China vs Sierra Leone chart

According to the latest available data on birth rates, the fertility rate in China was 1 children per woman in 2023, compared to 3.79 in Sierra Leone in 2023. The replacement level is considered to be 2.1 children per woman.

Check China vs Sierra Leone population clock for a dynamic visualization of the changing population.

The chart below showcases historical changes in the birth rates.

Table

Year	Fertility rate
	China	Sierra Leone
1960	4.45	6.18
1961	3.86	6.21
1962	6.09	6.22
1963	7.51	6.26
1964	6.67	6.29
1965	6.61	6.31
1966	6.31	6.35
1967	5.81	6.38
1968	6.51	6.39
1969	6.18	6.39
1970	6.09	6.41
1971	5.52	6.43
1972	5.11	6.45
1973	4.73	6.47
1974	4.17	6.53
1975	3.57	6.55
1976	3.24	6.55
1977	2.84	6.57
1978	2.72	6.59
1979	2.75	6.58
1980	2.74	6.56
1981	2.79	6.55
1982	2.97	6.56
1983	2.56	6.57
1984	2.61	6.59
1985	2.63	6.59
1986	2.72	6.6
1987	2.76	6.61
1988	2.54	6.59
1989	2.52	6.57
1990	2.51	6.57
1991	1.93	6.55
1992	1.78	6.56
1993	1.69	6.57
1994	1.63	6.56
1995	1.59	6.56
1996	1.55	6.55
1997	1.53	6.53
1998	1.52	6.5
1999	1.53	6.42
2000	1.63	6.36
2001	1.56	6.31
2002	1.57	6.23
2003	1.57	6.09
2004	1.61	5.92
2005	1.62	5.81
2006	1.64	5.74
2007	1.67	5.64
2008	1.7	5.56
2009	1.71	5.45
2010	1.69	5.33
2011	1.67	5.21
2012	1.8	5.06
2013	1.71	4.87
2014	1.77	4.7
2015	1.67	4.55
2016	1.77	4.47
2017	1.8	4.39
2018	1.54	4.29
2019	1.5	4.19
2020	1.24	4.08
2021	1.12	3.98
2022	1.03	3.88
2023	1	3.79
2024	1.01	3.7
2025	1.02	3.61
2026	1.03	3.53
2027	1.04	3.47
2028	1.05	3.37
2029	1.05	3.3
2030	1.06	3.23
2031	1.07	3.18
2032	1.08	3.12
2033	1.08	3.07
2034	1.09	3.02
2035	1.1	2.97
2036	1.1	2.92
2037	1.11	2.88
2038	1.12	2.84
2039	1.12	2.79
2040	1.13	2.76
2041	1.13	2.72
2042	1.14	2.68
2043	1.15	2.65
2044	1.15	2.62
2045	1.16	2.58
2046	1.16	2.55
2047	1.17	2.53
2048	1.17	2.5
2049	1.18	2.47
2050	1.18	2.45

Children 0-14 years as share of population

Table

Year	Share of people 0-14 years old
	China	Sierra Leone
1960	40.3%	38.2%
1961	40%	38.3%
1962	40%	38.3%
1963	40.6%	38.5%
1964	41.2%	38.8%
1965	41.5%	39.1%
1966	41.5%	39.4%
1967	41.3%	39.6%
1968	41%	39.9%
1969	41%	40.1%
1970	40.8%	40.3%
1971	40.7%	40.6%
1972	40.4%	40.7%
1973	40.1%	40.9%
1974	40.2%	41.1%
1975	40.2%	41.3%
1976	40.3%	41.4%
1977	39.8%	41.6%
1978	38.6%	41.7%
1979	37.2%	41.8%
1980	36.1%	41.9%
1981	35.1%	42%
1982	34.3%	42.1%
1983	33.3%	42.2%
1984	32.2%	42.3%
1985	31.2%	42.5%
1986	30.4%	42.6%
1987	29.8%	42.7%
1988	29.3%	42.8%
1989	28.9%	42.9%
1990	28.8%	42.9%
1991	28.6%	43%
1992	28.4%	43.1%
1993	28.2%	43.2%
1994	27.8%	43.3%
1995	27.4%	43.4%
1996	27%	43.5%
1997	26.3%	43.5%
1998	25.7%	43.6%
1999	25.2%	43.7%
2000	24.5%	43.8%
2001	23.8%	43.9%
2002	22.9%	43.9%
2003	22%	43.9%
2004	21.2%	43.9%
2005	20.3%	43.8%
2006	19.6%	43.7%
2007	19.2%	43.6%
2008	18.9%	43.5%
2009	18.6%	43.4%
2010	18.5%	43.2%
2011	18.3%	43%
2012	18.3%	42.8%
2013	18.3%	42.5%
2014	18.3%	42.2%
2015	18.3%	41.8%
2016	18.3%	41.4%
2017	18.4%	41%
2018	18.3%	40.6%
2019	18.2%	40.2%
2020	18%	39.8%
2021	17.6%	39.4%
2022	17.1%	39%
2023	16.6%	38.5%
2024	16%	38.1%
2025	15.4%	37.7%
2026	14.8%	37.2%
2027	14.1%	36.8%
2028	13.5%	36.3%
2029	12.8%	35.9%
2030	12.1%	35.5%
2031	11.5%	35.2%
2032	10.8%	34.8%
2033	10.3%	34.4%
2034	9.83%	34%
2035	9.53%	33.6%
2036	9.37%	33.2%
2037	9.31%	32.8%
2038	9.31%	32.4%
2039	9.34%	32%
2040	9.38%	31.6%
2041	9.43%	31.2%
2042	9.49%	30.9%
2043	9.56%	30.5%
2044	9.63%	30.2%
2045	9.71%	29.8%
2046	9.78%	29.5%
2047	9.85%	29.2%
2048	9.9%	28.8%
2049	9.93%	28.5%
2050	9.94%	28.2%

Children aged 0-14 make up 16% of the population in China and 38.1% in Sierra Leone in 2024, compared to 28.8% and 42.9% respectively in 1990.

Demographics of China and Sierra Leone compared.

Natural population change in China vs Sierra Leone by year

For the past 10 years, the annual natural population change (excluding migration) has been +0.31% in China and +2.31% in Sierra Leone. The chart below illustrates the comparison of the absolute yearly changes resulting from births and deaths.

Table

Year	Population change due to births and deaths
	China	Sierra Leone
1960	-3,048,510	38,192
1961	2,496,047	40,022
1962	17,969,132	41,603
1963	22,742,225	43,569
1964	19,302,532	45,487
1965	20,296,950	47,223
1966	19,282,187	49,486
1967	19,263,662	51,734
1968	21,206,083	53,126
1969	20,760,332	54,768
1970	21,137,076	56,513
1971	19,622,980	58,484
1972	19,102,585	60,279
1973	18,423,727	62,443
1974	15,738,118	65,357
1975	14,378,237	67,560
1976	11,782,472	69,506
1977	11,378,068	71,663
1978	11,473,980	74,130
1979	11,250,148	75,992
1980	11,647,260	77,932
1981	14,461,027	80,111
1982	15,815,318	82,457
1983	13,599,789	84,628
1984	13,561,671	87,072
1985	14,987,830	88,869
1986	16,609,920	90,902
1987	18,005,821	94,235
1988	17,328,640	96,344
1989	16,824,495	98,298
1990	16,335,313	100,778
1991	14,937,124	105,477
1992	13,548,601	103,251
1993	13,493,138	103,317
1994	13,360,470	101,486
1995	12,711,220	100,885
1996	12,686,872	104,140
1997	12,374,554	105,433
1998	11,351,286	103,906
1999	10,247,372	102,295
2000	9,570,849	110,754
2001	8,839,358	116,647
2002	8,258,580	126,429
2003	7,743,284	130,312
2004	7,607,960	132,661
2005	7,678,911	137,234
2006	6,922,185	144,127
2007	6,813,465	145,740
2008	6,729,247	149,855
2009	6,483,236	152,669
2010	6,407,607	155,338
2011	8,245,065	158,858
2012	10,075,174	160,915
2013	8,043,116	161,265
2014	9,205,180	160,137
2015	6,788,911	162,275
2016	9,062,269	168,784
2017	7,790,880	173,259
2018	5,302,433	178,772
2019	4,673,713	181,068
2020	2,046,095	181,015
2021	480,203	183,326
2022	-847,305	186,625
2023	-2,087,851	188,788

Maternal mortality chart: China vs Sierra Leone

The maternal mortality rate, which is the probability of dying during childbirth or within 42 days of pregnancy termination, is 16 deaths per 100,000 live births in China, compared to 354 deaths in Sierra Leone.

Table

Year	Maternal mortality per 100K births
	China	Sierra Leone
1985	125	1,506
1986	120	1,530
1987	114	1,533
1988	108	1,549
1989	104	1,575
1990	102	1,572
1991	92	1,699
1992	86	1,681
1993	80	1,696
1994	76	1,755
1995	71	1,777
1996	67	1,726
1997	63	1,721
1998	60	1,753
1999	58	1,731
2000	56	1,603
2001	52	1,518
2002	50	1,492
2003	47	1,433
2004	45	1,366
2005	42	1,294
2006	40	1,168
2007	38	1,132
2008	38	1,093
2009	35	1,054
2010	34	1,018
2011	33	967
2012	32	915
2013	30	842
2014	28	821
2015	26	730
2016	25	633
2017	24	578
2018	22	491
2019	21	464
2020	20	422
2021	21	403
2022	18	370
2023	16	354

Under-five mortality rates

The chance that a newborn baby will die before reaching age five is 0.62% in China and 9.43% in Sierra Leone. Below is the historical data on under-five mortality rates.

Table

Year	Mortality rate before reaching 5 years of age, per 1,000 live births
	China	Sierra Leone
1960	-	39.1%
1961	-	38.5%
1962	-	38%
1963	-	37.4%
1964	-	36.8%
1965	-	36.2%
1966	-	35.6%
1967	-	35%
1968	-	34.5%
1969	11.9%	33.9%
1970	11.3%	33.4%
1971	10.7%	32.9%
1972	10.2%	32.3%
1973	9.61%	31.9%
1974	9.05%	31.4%
1975	8.5%	30.9%
1976	7.97%	30.5%
1977	7.47%	30%
1978	7.01%	29.6%
1979	6.62%	29.2%
1980	6.28%	28.9%
1981	6%	28.5%
1982	5.78%	28.1%
1983	5.61%	27.8%
1984	5.5%	27.5%
1985	5.43%	27.2%
1986	5.4%	26.9%
1987	5.4%	26.6%
1988	5.4%	26.4%
1989	5.39%	26.2%
1990	5.37%	25.9%
1991	5.31%	25.7%
1992	5.22%	25.5%
1993	5.08%	25.3%
1994	4.93%	25%
1995	4.75%	24.7%
1996	4.56%	24.3%
1997	4.36%	23.9%
1998	4.14%	23.4%
1999	3.91%	22.9%
2000	3.67%	22.4%
2001	3.42%	21.8%
2002	3.15%	21.3%
2003	2.89%	20.7%
2004	2.64%	20.1%
2005	2.4%	19.4%
2006	2.19%	18.8%
2007	2.01%	18.1%
2008	1.85%	17.3%
2009	1.71%	16.6%
2010	1.58%	15.9%
2011	1.46%	15.2%
2012	1.35%	14.5%
2013	1.25%	13.9%
2014	1.15%	13.7%
2015	1.07%	13.8%
2016	0.99%	12.3%
2017	0.92%	11.8%
2018	0.86%	11.3%
2019	0.8%	10.9%
2020	0.75%	10.5%
2021	0.7%	10.1%
2022	0.66%	9.77%
2023	0.62%	9.43%