Australia has recorded its highest annual birth rate in nine years, with indications that couples are encouraged by low unemployment and economic stability to have babies. Population figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released over the Easter break showed there were 133,000 births in the six months to September 2004, the highest half-year total since 1990. Over the full year to September there were about 255,100 births, the highest annual total in nine years, giving a fertility rate, or number of births per woman, of 1.773 for 2003-2004.