[File:Countriesbyfertilityrate.svg|thumb|550px|A world map showing countries by total fertility rate (TFR), according to the CIA World Factbook's 2015 data. ]] The total fertility rate (TFR), sometimes also called the fertility rate, period total fertility rate (PTFR) or total period fertility rate (TPFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if:

1. She were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime, and
2. She were to survive from birth through the end of her reproductive life.

It is obtained by summing the single-year age-specific rates at a given time.