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The fertility rate of a country is the average number of children that women from that country will have throughout their reproductive years. Between 1840 and 1855 the fertility rate of the Netherlands fell from 5.1 to 4.7, before rising again to 5.4. This is the highest ever recorded rate of fertility in the Netherlands, as after this the number dropped gradually until 1940, where it was just 2.6 children per woman. From the early 1940s (which was slightly earlier than most other Western European countries) until the late 1960s, the Netherlands experienced its 'baby boom', before the fertility rate dropped to 1.5 in 1985. Since 1985, the fertility rate has remained relatively constant, staying between 1.5 and 1.8 children per woman in this 35 year period.