Press Release 25/06/2012

BIRTH STATISTICS FOR THE BASQUE COUNTRY (ENAC) 4TH QUARTER 2011

Births fell by 3,3% in the fourth quarter of 2011

In Álava, one in four new mothers was of foreign nationality

In the fourth quarter of 2011 the number of births in the Basque Country stood at 5256, 3,3% down on the same period of the previous year, according to Eustat data. However, the number of newborns with a mother of foreign nationality was up by 3.4%.

17.1% of women who became mothers in the Basque Country in the autumn months of 2011 were foreign. This percentage was only exceeded in Álava, where it stood at 24.9%. The figure for mothers who did not have Spanish nationality in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa stood at 16.6% and 14%, respectively.

With 864 boys and girls Álava was the only province to experience a rise, up 4.3%; Bizkaia y Gipuzkoa, with 2681 and 1711 births, respectively, registered drops of 3,7% and 6,1% compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

80% of mothers were over 29 years of age

In the distribution of births according to the age of the mother, there continued to be a clear preponderance of the 30-34 year-old age group, in which 41.6% of the births took place. This group was followed by the group immediately above it (mothers aged 35-39), which accounted for 32.3% and was ahead of the 25-29 age group, which accounted for 14.2%. The number of mothers above the age of 40 (6.1%) exceeded those under 25 (5.7%).

The age at which women became mothers also varied when taking into account their nationality. In fact, the average age of foreign mothers was 29.4, compared to 33,6 for mothers with Spanish nationality.

The 60 teenage mothers (aged 19 or under) accounted for 1.1% of the total number of mothers, of which 20 were Spanish and 40 were foreign.

The number of births from single mothers exceeded 36%

Births outside marriage in the fourth quarter of 2011 accounted for 36.2% of the total, up 1.7 percentage points on the number registered for the same period in 2010.

According to the order of birth, over half (56.2%), or 2954 births, were first-borns; 1858 (35.4%) were born into families that already had a child, and the number of third children and later stood at 444 (8.4%).

Of the total number of births in the 4th quarter of 2011, 1904 took place in October, 1631 in November and 1721 in December.

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 Tel:+34-945-01 75 49 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 More press releases on BIRTH STATISTICS of the BASQUE COUNTRY Databank on BIRTH STATISTICS of the BASQUE COUNTRY