Press Release 25/09/2017
Births were down 11.1% in the first quarter of 2017 in the Basque Country
47.3% of mothers were aged 35 or over and 44.3% of births were outside marriage
In the first quarter of 2017 the number of births in the Basque Country stood at 4,050, which was a drop of 11.1% compared to the same quarter of the previous year, according to Eustat data. The number of births decreased in two of the three provinces: in Bizkaia, the decrease was 15.3%, in Álava it was 8.6% and in Gipuzkoa there was a fall of 5.9%. Specifically, in Bizkaia 1,972 girls and boys were born, 713 were born in Álava and 1,365 in Gipuzkoa.
In the distribution of births according to the age of the mother, it is particularly noteworthy that the group of mothers aged 35-39 moved into first position, producing 36.8% of births. This group was followed by the group immediately below it (mothers aged 30-34), which accounted for 34.2%, and the 25-29 age group, although the latter only accounted for 12.6%.
With regards to the same quarter of 2016, the number of women who became mothers aged 40 or over decreased slightly, going from 429 in 2016 to 425 in 2017. The births from these women made up 10.5% of the total, exceeding the 5.9% of births by mothers younger than 25.
Births outside marriage accounted for 44.3% of the total, a figure 2 percentage points above that for the first quarter of 2016. Bizkaia, with 45.2%, was the only province to post higher figures than the Basque Country as a whole, whereas Álava posted 43.6% and Gipuzkoa 43.3%. The maternity age of this group was below that of the overall group of women that had children, given that 10.6% of them were under the age of 25.
According to the order of birth, in the first quarter of 2017 more than half of the births, 2,015 children, were first-born, which was 1.1 percentage points less than the previous year, following a drop of 13.1%; 1,584 (39.1%) arrived in families that already had another son or daughter, and the percentage of third or subsequent children stood at 11.1%.
22.9% of mothers were foreign nationals
In 22.9% of births in the Basque Country during the first three months of 2017, the mother was a foreign national. This figure was higher in Álava where it stood at 29.6%, against 21% in Bizkaia and 22.1% in Gipuzkoa. There was also a growth in the number of foreign mothers of almost 1.7 percentage points with respect to the previous year.
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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