4.932 births were recorded in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country during the fourth quarter of 2006, which means an increase of 0.3% with respect to the same period in the previous year, according to data from Eustat, the Basque Statistics Office. 1,739 of those births took place in October, 1,617 in November and 1,576 in December. By territories, in Alava 695 children were born, 2,500 were born in Bizkaia and 1,737 were born in Gipuzkoa.

The balance for 2006 places the number of births at 19,863, which means an overall increase of 1.4% with respect to 2005.

In the last quarter of 2006, in terms of sequence, over half (57.8%), that is 2,853 children, were first children; 1,742 children (35.3%) came to families in which there already was a previously-born child; third children and later children amounted to 337 (6.8%).

As refers to the distribution of births reference to the age of the mother, there continues to be a clear preponderance of the 30-34 year-old age group, in which 44.5% of the births take place. This group is followed by the next oldest group aged between 35-39 years with 28%. The 25-29 year-old group takes the third place with 16.5%, whereas the 20-24 year-old group accounts for only 5.6% of births.

Maternity in ages over 40 (5.4%) is above that of young women below 20 (1.1%).

The number of single mothers increases

Births out of wedlock account for 26.9% of the total, 1.4% above the index registered over the same period in 2005. By territories, Alava was where the highest percentage was registered, with (29.6%), followed by Gipuzkoa with 26.5% and Bizkaia with 26.4%.

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

Graph 1: Monthly movement of births