The sa国际传媒 government announced on the last day of 2024 that there were 38,103 registered births in the province this year, as of Dec. 16.
While there remains two weeks of uncounted births, sa国际传媒 has seen, on average, about 3,200 births each December over the past five years.
This means it is highly likely the total number of births will be less than 40,000 — a first since 1979, according to Statistics sa国际传媒 and .
Births in sa国际传媒 have been declining since 2016 (45,269) save for a bump in 2021 (44,050), the year following the most drastic COVID-19 restrictions. Births peaked in 1994 with 46,998.
, sa国际传媒 registered 45,002 deaths and only 41,401 births as the fertility rate in sa国际传媒 dropped to 1.0 — the lowest among all provinces and territories — and in sa国际传媒 to 1.26.
The average child-bearing age in sa国际传媒 in 2023 was 32.6 whereas in sa国际传媒 it was 31.7.
It was 2021 when deaths (44,720) first outnumbered births (44,073) in the province’s history dating back to 1950, per Statistics sa国际传媒 (figures vary slightly as compared to BC Vital Statistics).
To Oct. 31, 2024, the province had registered 35,946 deaths while it has seen about 8,000 deaths in November and December in the past three years, up from 6,677 in 2019. Keeping with that pace would put deaths around the 44,000 mark.
In 2022, the province recorded 45,998 deaths, the most in any one year in its history.