The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, issued this week, states that with 1.76 babies per woman in the territory, the fertility rate lags behind the national rate of 1.97 babies per woman.

Demographic trend commentator Bernard Salt said the fertility rate in Canberra was low because women of the capital were likely to be highly educated and participating in the workforce, two factors that led to the propensity to produce children diminishing.

The 2008 national fertility rate was higher than that of the year before when it was 1.92. It was the highest since 1977 when it was 2.01.

Tasmanian women had the highest fertility rate of 2.24 babies per woman, slightly more than Northern Territory's 2.22 per woman.

Overall, the number of babies produced was booming. For the second consecutive year Australians produced a record-breaking numbers of births.

''You are not seeing things there are more prams around,'' Mr Salt said.

''We are in the midst of a baby boom.''

According to the ABS, there were 296,600 births registered in 2008. This surpassed the previous record years of 2007 (285,200 births) and 1971 (276,400).

Tasmanian and Northern Territory women had their children at younger ages - fertility rates were highest for women aged 25 to 29, for the rest of country it was highest for women aged 30 to 34.

Nearly half (43 per cent) of all births in 2008 were to first-time mothers, a third (33 per cent) were having their second child.

About 15,000 babies had at least one Aboriginal parent.

According to Mr Salt, the 2008 figures reflect a seven-year upturn in the birth rate which predates the baby bonus.

Generation X jumped on the ''baby bandwagon'' in 2002, ahead of the baby bonus in 2004 which accentuated an existing trend.

''We are now producing almost 300,000 babies a year, about 60,000 more than we did in the year 2000.''

While Mr Salt did not expect a return to the fertility rates of the 1950s and 1960s, ''there is a healthy recovery in our birth rate''.

He attributed the baby boom to the prosperity of the times, with people feeling confident about their jobs and their future.

For the same reason, he anticipated next year's data referring to a bleak economic period this year's global financial crisis would show the birth rate had plateaued or decreased somewhat with people unwilling to take on ''genetic liabilities'' in uncertain times.