The number of children born in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country in the last quarter of 2007 amounted to 5174, 3.7% above the total for the same period in the previous year, according to data from Eustat, the Basque Statistics Office. Of those children, 1796 were born in October, 1737 in November and 1641 in December. By territories, 745 children were born in Alava, 2674 in Bizkaia and 1755 in Gipuzkoa.

The balance for 2007 places the number of births at 20,479, which means a 2.7% increase over the total for 2006.

As refers to birth sequence, in the last quarter of 2007, over half the children (56.7% - 2932 children) were first children; 1834 children (35.4%) were born to families in which there had already been a previous child; whereas third children and others amounted to 408 (7.9%).

As refers to the distribution of births reference to the age of the mother, there continued to be a clear preponderance of mothers in the 30-34 year-old age group, in which 43.3% of the births took place. This group is followed by the next oldest group, aged between 35-39, amounting to 28.4%, thus beating the 25-29 year-old group that contributes 17.5% of the children born in that period, whereas the group of mothers aged 20-24 only accounts for 5.3% of the births.

Mothers above 40 (5.1%) account for more births than those aged below 20 (1.5% of the total of births).

There is an increase in the number of single mothers

Children born out of wedlock amount to 30.1% of the total, which means an increase of 3.2% with respect to the same period in 2006. By territories, Bizkaia accounts for the highest percentage, with 31%, followed by Gipuzkoa with 29.4% and Alava with 28.2%.

Table 1. Children born alive in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. Comparative Table

Graph 1. Monthly birth movement

Basis 100 = Average

Source: EUSTAT