Data on Birth Statistics elaborated by EUSTAT for the third quarter on 2005 show a figure of 4,871 births in the A.C. of the Basque Country, which represents a 3.1% fall with regard to the same period the year before. By provinces, 702 children were born in Álava, a 2.8% decrease, and 1,691 were born in Gipuzkoa, where the decrease was 6.7%. By contrast, Bizkaia maintained similar figures to the third quarter of 2004, with 2,478 births (-0.6%).

According to the order of birth, over half, 2.857 were first born in the third quarter of 2005; 1,723 births (35.4%) were in families that already had another child and 6% were born as third or later born. Gipuzkoa (42.5%) was the only Province where the proportion of second or later born was higher than the average for the A.C. of the Basque Country, which was 41.3%.

Mothers were aged over 30 in three out of every four births

In the distribution of births according to the age of the mother, the preponderance of the 30-34 years age group continued, to which 45.5% of births corresponded. This group is followed by the immediately higher 35-39 years age group with 27.4%, surpassing the 25-29 years group which contributed with 17.6%. Between the extreme age groups, the lower group of under 25 year olds represented 5.2%, while the over 40 year olds gave birth to 4.3% of all births.

Children born outside marriage represented 22.7% of the total, a similar figure to the third quarter of 2004. Gipuzkoa, with 23.2%, was the only province with higher values than the whole of the A.C. of the Basque Country. Maternity age for this group is lower than that of the total women who gave birth, as 15.3% of unmarried mothers are aged between 14 and 24 years.