Press Release 19/06/2009

BIRTH STATISTICS (ENAC), 4th quarter 2008

Births fell by 1.5% in the four quarter of 2008

However, 21,173 babies were born during the year, up 3.2% on the 2007

In the fourth quarter of 2008, 5,107 babies were born in the Basque Country, 1.5% down on the same period of the previous year, according to Eustat data. 1,790 of the births were in October, 1,674 in November and 1,643 in December. By provinces, 771 children were born in Alava, 2643 in Bizkaia and 1693 in Gipuzkoa.

According to the birth order, over half the births (2,952 - 57.8%) were first children, 1764 babies (34.5%) were born to families that already had another child and there were 391 babies or were third or more children (7.7%).

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 41% of the births took place. This group is followed by the next oldest group, aged between 35-39, which accounted for 30.4% and was ahead of the 25-29 age group, with 16.2% of births, while only 5.5% of the births were to mothers aged 20-24.

The number of mothers aged 40 and over (5.4%) was greater than women under 20 (1.5%).

More single mothers

Births outside marriage in the fourth quarter of 2008 accounted for 32.1% of the total, 3.3 percentage points over the index for the same period of 2007. By provinces, the highest percentage was in Bizkaia (32.2%), followed by Gipuzkoa (32%) and Alava with 31.8%.



Table 1. Children born alive in the the Basque Country. Comparative Table

Graph 1. Monthly birth movement

Base100 = Average

Source: EUSTAT

For further information:

Basque Statistics Office C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Tlf:+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.es