The latest birth figures from the Bureau of Statistics show Bendigo’s birth rate has grown consistently during the past five years from 1.80 in 2003, but it still trails behind the national average of 1.93 babies per women - a 7.2 per cent increase over 2006.

In 2007, 1184 babies were born at Bendigo Hospital, compared with 1030 the previous year.

There have been 920 delivered at the hospital so far this year.

Concerns have been raised that already struggling hospitals across the state will be unable to cope with the baby boom.

“Bendigo Health has a dedicated team of health professionals who work extremely hard under busy and difficult circumstances and will continue to do so to ensure a positive outcome for patients,’’ a Bendigo Health spokesperson said.

“We have capacity for additional births, but they will add pressure to our already busy hospital.’’ Other ABS figures show women are starting their families later in life. Women aged 30-34 are experiencing the highest birth rate, with the median age of all mothers in 2007 being 30.7 years and fathers at 33.1 years.

In other trends, the number of children born out of wedlock has risen to 33 per cent, while children born to married couples has continued to fall since a 1987 when it was 82 per cent.

But runaway fathers were also on the decline, with the proportion of fathers who did not acknowledge the birth decreasing from five per in cent to 1987 to three per cent in 2007.

Victoria’s total fertility rate was 1.87 babies per woman, the highest since 1978, behind the nation’s highest rate in the Northern Territory of 2.27 babies per woman.

Figures across regional and rural areas of Victoria had consistently the strongest birth ratios, albeit coming off low population bases.

The Shire of Loddon topped the state with a birth rate of 2.69 babies per woman.