Net Reproduction Rate

The net reproduction rate (NRR) is the demographic measure of generational replacement: the average number of daughters a woman would bear who survive to the age their mother was when she bore them, given the period's age-specific fertility rates and female mortality. By combining fertility with survival, the NRR answers the fundamental question of whether a population is replacing itself — an NRR of one means each generation of women exactly reproduces the next, below one signals long-run decline, and above one signals growth.