The oldest confirmed father in the world is Les Colley from Australia, who was given the Guinness World Record for his feat. The pensioner had his ninth child, a son named Oswald, to his third wife at the age of 92 years 10 months. He met Oswald's Fijian mother in 1991 through a dating agency, when he was 90.
Raghav became the world's oldest father at age 94 when his first child was born in 2010. He broke his own record in 2012 when at the age of 96 he had another son.
The youngest father in the world is reportedly a boy from China, who, at 9 fathered a child with an 8-year-old girl. This occurred in 1910. There is also a 10-year-old father recorded in the USA, no details about the mother.
Oldest fathers: medical considerations
The website of the world record authority Guinness World Records lists the oldest father ever as Australian Les Colley (1898-1998), who allegedly fathered his ninth child at age 92 with a Fijian woman he met through a dating agency.
Though there are two unconfirmed reports of older fathers, Les Colley holds the official record after his partner gave birth to a son in 1993. The Australian pensioner had his ninth child, Oswald, to his third wife two months before he turned 93.
But what happened after she was labelled 'Australia's youngest mum'? Six years on, here's what happened to the now-21-year-old from Melbourne.
There's no maximum age that stops a man from being able to have a baby. You can become a father long into your older years, but there are risks.
While certain risks may rise with age, men continue to produce sperm throughout their lives and can father healthy children into old age.
Erramatti Mangamma currently holds the record for being the oldest living mother who gave birth at the age of 73 through in-vitro fertilisation via caesarean section in the city of Hyderabad, India. She delivered twin baby girls, making her also the oldest mother to give birth to twins.
A South African woman has broken a Guinness World Record as she gave birth to 10 babies at once, according to a local media report.
A Russian woman named Valentina Vassilyeva and her husband Feodor Vassilyev are alleged to hold the record for the most children a couple has produced. She gave birth to a total of 69 children – sixteen pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets – between 1725 and 1765, a total of 27 births.
The world's oldest father is believed to be Mr Ramajit Raghav, who was 94 years old when he fathered his first child in 2010. He and his then 52-year-old wife Shakuntala Devi had another son two years later. The farmer is from Kharkhoda village, located near New Delhi in India.
Xinju Tian, who was 67 years old when she gave birth in 2023, set a new record for the oldest woman to give birth naturally.
Robert De Niro, 79, recently welcomed 7th child: 'I just had a baby'
While a 92-year-old woman delivering a 60-year-old baby may sound like a bizarre plot twist from the movie “Benjamin Button,” it's true. Huang Yijun, 92, of southern China, recently delivered a child which she'd been carrying for well over half a century. The baby wasn't alive, however.
Even with all the understandable talk of “windows of opportunity” and “biological clocks,” there are ways for women over 35 to make motherhood a reality. Infertility treatments can be difficult and expensive, but fertility specialists can talk with you about options. Age is less of a limitation than it used to be.
Male Fertility Facts
Peak male fertility is around 25-29 years old. Sperm quality begins to decline at 30. At 45, men begin to experience a significant decrease in semen volume. Older men can also take longer to conceive a child.
Erramatti Mangayamma at age 74 gave birth to twins in India last week after becoming pregnant through IVF, making her the oldest person ever to give birth, according to her doctors, and reigniting debate over so-called geriatric pregnancies.
'World's oldest mom' gives birth to twins at age 74 after IVF, hospital claims. GODAVARI, India - A 74-year-old woman now holds the record for “world's oldest mom” after she reportedly gave birth to twins on Thursday following a round of in vitro fertilization using donor eggs.
The scientists also note that at the age of 35, the proportion of sperm carrying an X chromosome also seems to increase, meaning older dads are more likely to have daughters. In human reproduction, the Y chromosome is responsible for making a male child.
Finally, you can comfort yourself with the fact that, while male fertility may gradually decline through the years, some men will still be able to father a healthy child well into their 50s and beyond.
There's no expiration date on when guys can father a child. Case in point: Rocker Mick Jagger just had his eighth child at the age of 73. Since men don't hit menopause—the time in a woman's life where her fertility ends—they can typically continue to father children into their later years.