The total fertility rate is above the replacement level – the number of children needed to keep the total population constant – in 20 out of 26 LAC countries for 2005-10. The only exceptions are the Bahamas, Brazil, Chile and Costa Rica (at replacement level of 1.9) and Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados at 1.8. However, the fertility levels have declined in each ten-year period over the last 30 years, with the exception of Barbados between 1995 and 2005. Fertility rates have a profound implication for pension systems because they, along with life expectancy, are the drivers of population ageing.