Data for the second quarter of 2006 on Birth Statistics, carried out by EUSTAT, give a figure of 4,986 births in the A.C. of the Basque Country, practically the same as in the same period the year before. By provinces, 736 babies were born in Álava, 2,536 in Bizkaia and 1,714 in Gipuzkoa

According to the order of birth, over half, 2.769 were second born in the second quarter of 2006; 1,869 births (37.5%) corresponded to families that already had another child and 7% was the percentage as third or later born. Bizkaia (42.2 %) was the only province were the proportion of second or later born was lower than the average for the A.C. of the Basque Country, which stands at 44.5%. By contrast Álava and Gipuzkoa had higher percentages, with 45.7% and 47.3% respectively.

In three out of every four births the mother was over 30 years of age

In the distribution of births according to the age of the mother, a clear preponderance of the 30-34 years age group continued, to which almost half the births corresponded. This group is followed by the immediately higher 35-39 years age group with 26%, surpassing the 25-29 years group which contributed with 17.8%. Between the extreme age groups, the lower group of under 25 year olds represented 5.8%, while the over 40 year olds accounted for only 3.9% of all births.

Children born outside marriage represented 22.3% of the total, an increase of almost half a point with regard to the second quarter of 2005. Bizkaia, with 23.3%, was the only province with higher values than the whole of the A.C. of the Basque Country. In Álava and Gipuzkoa the percentages were slightly lower, 20.4% and 21.6% respectively. The maternity age for this group is lower than that of the total women who gave birth, as 16.9% of unmarried mothers were aged between 14 and 24.

Table 1. Live born in the A.C. of Euskadi. Comparative table

Graph 1: Monthly movement of births