Press Release 27/11/2015
Births in the Basque Country fell by 5.5% in the second quarter of 2015
Babies born to unmarried mothers accounted for 41%
The number of births in the Basque Country in the second quarter of 2015 stood at 4,674, a figure 5.5% lower than that recorded in the same period of the previous year, according to Eustat data. The decline occurred in two of the three provinces, Álava and Bizkaia, with 6.7% and 9.2%, respectively, whereas in Gipuzkoa births rose by 0.9%. Specifically, in Álava 771 girls and boys were born, 2,298 were born in Bizkaia and 1,605 in Gipuzkoa.
During April, May and June 2015 births outside marriage accounted for 40.8% of the total, a greater percentage than the 38.5% recorded in the same quarter of 2014. Gipuzkoa, with 38.6%, was the only province with values lower than those of the Basque Country as a whole; in Bizkaia and Álava the percentages were higher, 42.3% and 41%, respectively.
According to the order of birth in the second quarter of 2015 more than half, 2,440, were first children; 1,791 girls and boys (38.3%) arrived in families that already had another son or daughter, and the percentage of third or subsequent children stood at 9.5%.
In almost 2 out of 10 births the mothers were under 30 years of age
Regarding the distribution of births according to age, the group of mothers between the ages of 30-34 continued to be in the majority, producing 38% of births. They were immediately followed by the 35-39 age group, with 35.6%. With percentages significantly lower than the previous groups was the 25 to 29 age group (13.8%) and the extreme age groups: the under-25s, accounting for 4.6%, and the over-40s, with 7.8% of births.
The age of maternity for single mothers was lower than that for women who had children as a whole, with 8.6% of single mothers being under the age of 25 and 15.6% between the ages of 25 and 29.
18.2% of mothers were foreign nationals
In 18.2% of births in the Basque Country during the spring months of 2015, the mother was a foreign national. This average was significantly higher in Álava where it stood at 25.2%, against the 15.8% in Bizkaia and the 18.3% in Gipuzkoa.
For further information:
Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tlf: 945 01 75 62
Further press releases on birth statistics of the Basque Country
Database on birth statistics of the Basque Country