Press Release 10/03/2009

BIRTH STATISTICS (ENAC), 2007

Over 25% of births were outside marriage in 2007

The number of births continued to recover and stood at 20,596, 2.8% up on 2006

In 2007, there were 5,568 births outside marriage, according to Eustat data. This figure accounted for 27% of the total births and was higher than the previous year (24.7%). The percentages for Álava and Bizkaia were higher than the one for the Basque Country as a whole, at 27.3% and 28.0%, respectively, while Gipuzkoa was the only provinces with relatively lower values (25.5%). The proportion of births outside marriage has nearly quadrupled over the last seventeen years as it stood at 7.7% in 1990.

In 2007, the number of births in the Basque Country totalled 20,596, which was a 2.8% increase compared to 2006. This growth was greater than that recorded between 2005 and 2006, which came to 1.7%. The greatest increase in 2007 occurred in Álava (3.7%), followed by Bizkaia (3.3%) and Gipuzkoa, with 1.6%.

The birth rate stood at 9.7 per thousand inhabitants, which was far from the 20 per thousand recorded during the 1960s. The highest figure was in Gipuzkoa (10.5‰), followed by Álava (10.0‰) and Bizkaia (9.1‰)

The start of the strong downward trend in the birth rate can be traced back to 1976. It slowed down from the end of the 80s and reached its lowest point in 1994. The 2007 figures consolidate the rally in the birth rate that began in 1995.

76.3% of women who gave birth in 2007 were thirty years old or over. Women aged between 30 and 34 comprised the largest group, with 44.7% of the total births. On the other hand, the number of mothers over 35 years old (31.6%) who gave birth, rose slightly compared to 2006 and continued to be significantly ahead of the 25-29 year old age group (17.1%). The average age of the mothers was 32.2 years old, while it was 31.2 years old in the case of first-time mothers, similar figures to those of 2006. There was also a certain recovery in the number of mothers under 25 years old, due to the immigrant women, who accounted for nearly 6% of the total.

Over the last decade, the number of mothers aged between 25-34 years old has fallen, with the greatest drop being recorded by the group aged between 25 to 29 (6.7 percentage points). On the other hand, the group of mothers aged 25 or over increased by 9.5 points.

In terms of the order of birth, first born babies accounted for 57.5% of the births in 2007, which is a similar proportion to the previous year. On the other hand, third and following births accounted for 7.3%, which was more than half a percentage point higher than in 2006.



The number of deliveries came to 20,153, out of which 19,641 were single, 496 double and 16 triple.

The breakdown by sex of the births in 2007 was 107 males for every 100 females. On average, the boys weighed 3,299 grams and the girls 3,174 grams.

Table 1: Children born alive in 2007 per Historical Territory of residence of the mother

Source: EUSTAT

For further information:

Basque Statistics Office C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Tel:+34-945-01 75 00 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 E-mail: eustat@eustat.es Contact: Martín González Hernández Tlf:+34-945-01 75 49 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 Online press releases: www.eustat.eus Data bank: www.eustat.eus/bancopx/english/indice.aspx