the fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years I've always had a problem with the term 'fertility rate', because

the fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years I've always had a problem with the term 'fertility rate', because it seems misleading. It does not indicate whether women are fertile or not; it means the women--for many possible reasons, of which 'infertility' is only a small percentage--did not give birth.