Also a 2.8% rise in births with regard to the same period the previous year.
Data for the second quarter of 2002 on Birth Statistics prepared by the Eustat show 4,581 births in the A.C. of the Basque Country, higher than in the first three months of the year. By provinces, there were 654 births in Álava, which represents a 16% increase on the previous quarter; 2,373 in Bizkaia with a 6.8% increase and 1,554 births in Gipuzkoa which represent a 5.9% increase.
According to the order of birth, over half, 2,571 (56,1%), were first born in the second quarter of 2002; 1,737 (37.9%) were born to families with another child and 273 (6%) were born to families with two or more children.
In three out of every four births, mothers were aged over 30.
In the distribution of births according to age, there is still a clear preponderance of the group of mothers aged 30-34 years, which accounted for 45.6% of births. This group was followed by the immediately higher 35-39 years age group with 25.8%, surpassing the 25-29 years age group which contributed with 20.4%. In the extreme age groups, the under 25 year olds represent 5.2% while the over 40 year olds only account for 3.1%.
Births outside marriage represented 17.7% of the total. Alava was the only province with higher values than the whole of the A.C. of the Basque Country (21.2%). The maternity age of this group is younger than that of the whole of the women that gave birth, as 19.1% of unmarried mothers was aged under 25.