MEDIA RELEASE
09 May 2014	Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	57/2014

Happy Mother's Day! To help celebrate Mother's Day the Australian Bureau of Statistics has put together some facts and figures on mothers:


· The median age of mothers has increased over the last 40 years from 25.5 years in 1972, to 30.2 years in 2002, to 30.7 years in 2012 (for all registered births).

· 4,421 of the 309,582 births in 2012 were to twins. 59 were to triplets or higher order births.

· There were 13,092 births registered in Australia in 2012 where the mother was of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin.

· Of all female primary carers in 2012 (536,700), there were 174,200 (32%) who were mothers whose main caring responsibility was for their child with a disability.

· In 2012-13 101,800 (37%) women aged 18 years and over who wanted a job or to work more hours, but were unavailable, reported that 'caring for children' was the main reason for their unavailability. This is the most common reason given by women for not being available.

· In November 2013, 304,700 of 622,700 (49%) self employed women were mothers with dependent children. 1,680,500 of 4,681,200 (36%) female employees were mothers with dependent children.

For more information on mothers see the following ABS products:
Gender Indicators, Australia, Feb 2014 (cat. no. 4125.0)
Births, Australia, 2012 (cat. no. 3301.0)
Barriers and Incentives to Labour Force Participation, Australia July 2012 to June 2013 (cat. no. 6239.0)
ABS data available on request, Forms of Employment, Australia, November 2013 (cat. no. 6359.0)
Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia, 2012 (cat. no. 4430.0)

Media note:
When reporting ABS data the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.
Media requests and interviews - contact the ABS Communications Section on 1300 175 070.