The number of births in the A.C. of the Basque Country in the second quarter of 2008 stood at 5,423, according to Eustat data, up 5.8% on the figure for the same period of the previous year. By provinces, 811 children were born in Alava, 2764 in Bizkaia and 1848 in Gipuzkoa.

The number of children born out of marriage accounted for 29.2% of the total, which was up 3.5 points with respect to the second quarter of 2007. Álava, with 32.7%, was the only province where the values were higher than those for the A.C. of the Basque Country as a whole. The percentages were slightly lower in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, 28.9% and 28.2%, respectively.

As refers to birth sequence, over half of the children (2930) were first children in the second quarter of 2008; 2,084 children (38.4%) were born into families where there was already another child and the percentage of third or later children stood at 7.5%. Gipuzkoa (47%) was the only province where the proportion of second or later children was greater than the average for the A.C. of the Basque Country (46%). On the other hand, the percentages for Álava and Gipuzkoa were lower, 45.4% in both cases.

The mothers were over 30 in three out of every four births

As refers to the distribution of births according the age of the mother, there continued to be a clear preponderance of the 30-34 year-old age group, in which almost half of the births took place. This group is followed by the next oldest group, aged between 35-39, which accounted for 26.1% and was ahead of the 25-29 age group, with 17.5% of births. At either end of the scale, the group of mothers under 25 accounted for 6.5% of births, whereas mothers over 40 lagged slightly behind, with 4.8% of the total of births.

Single mothers give birth when younger than the rest of women with children as a whole, as 16.6.% of unmarried mothers were under 25 and 23.2% between 25 and 29 years old.

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

Source: EUSTAT

Graph 1. Monthly birth movement

Base 100 = Average

Source: EUSTAT