Desired birth rate is a non conventional demographic term that describes the average number of children that couples want or are planning to have in their fertility age in a particular country or region. Desired birth rate can be thought as expected total fertility rate. However total fertility rate and desired birth rates tend to have a gap from the historical data. Desired birth rate have a significant role in demographics because of modern-day government policy (especially OECD) frustration to increase their birth rate. Estimating the desired birth rates are crucial before making demographic policy as it can foresee how effective the policy is likely to be.
Birth rate and desired birth rates are thought to have a different factors. Because of its nature of relating with psychology the factors that move desired birth rates are lifestyle, religion and culture. The real birth rates tend to move with macro economic characters such as average income, birth grants etc.