Babies born in Orange: The NSW Top Baby Suburbs and Towns lists

In the decade from 2011 onward, Orange has featured prominently on the NSW Top Baby Suburbs and Towns list and was on top of the regional NSW standings earlier in the decade.

But a surge from Dubbo in the last six years has it now on top as the regional city that's registered the most births since 2011.

A total of 5987 babies were born in Orange in those 11 years, and 6051 babies were born in Dubbo.

According to statistics from the NSW Government, in 2021 Orange ranked fifth in the state for number of births with 486. Dubbo was second with 515.

Blacktown has dominated the list, landing in top spot 10 out of the 11 years. The only time it didn't register the most births was in 2012, with Auburn recording 897. Blacktown was second that year with 844.

The booming Western Sydney suburbs of Bankstown, Auburn, Blacktown, Merrylands and Parramatta are invariably in the top five somewhere.

But Orange and Dubbo dominate in terms of regional centres, registering in the top 10 each year in the 11 years from 2011 to 2021.

In comparison, Bathurst cracks the top 50 just once, with 262 births in 2011 to sit in 49^th that year.

Here are how many births have occurred in Orange since 2011, and where the 2800 postcode ranks on the NSW Top Baby Suburbs and Towns lists, based on the mother's home address at time of the birth.

Although the total number of births in Australia has not yet been released for 2022, statistics show births have rebounded since the pandemic, rising from 294,369 in 2020 to 309,996 in 2021.

But in spite of the uptick, Australia's birthrate is dropping at a rapid pace.

The birth rate has been below replacement levels since 1976, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. While it did increase in 2021 to 1.7 babies per woman from 1.5 in 2020, it's still below the 2.1 babies needed.

The Demographics Group co-founder Simon Kuestenmacher said birth rates only increase when young people are optimistic about the future.

"The birth rate is falling like crazy and it only knows one way, and that's down," he said.

"Will it be reversed? Absolutely not.

"I would argue that you could even throw your baby bonus grants around and it won't change a thing."

Mr Kuestenmacher said the trend is a bi-product of an economically rich society.

"People only start having a couple more kids when their view of the future is outrageously optimistic," Mr Kuetenmacher said.

"When they believe that their personal fortunes will forever be rising.

"So unless there is a massive new mining boom, if we make housing cheaper, if wages grow really fast, if, generally speaking, younger people have an optimistic view of the world, rates will go up.

"But that isn't the case at the moment - people view themselves as a cancer on the planet."

Global birth rates are falling, even in the most underdeveloped, sub-Saharan African countries.

"Subsistence farming is on the way out, and you must remember, that even in the most back-water regional places people are consuming the same global media," Mr Kuetenmacher said.

"And they are very much exposed to small family standards, and education for women is going up also, which always drives the birth rates down."

Mr Kuetenmacher said if the trends continue we will reach peak human population by 2060.

"On a global perspective, if we reach peak humanity in 40 years time, we will be forever shrinking, and then the whole phenomenon in Japan where the country is ageing and slowly shrinking away, will happen on a global scale," he said.

Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens. Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.