Press release 17/06/2019

BIRTH STATISTICS. 2018

Births in the Basque Country fell by 5.8% in 2018

39.7% of foreign mothers were under 30, compared with 12.2% of mothers of Spanish nationality

In 2018 the number of births in the Basque Country stood at 16,090, down 5.8% on the previous year, according to Eustat data. Among mothers of Spanish nationality the decrease was 9.5%, whilst among foreign mothers the number of births increased by 7.1%.

Regarding the distribution by province, Álava saw the greatest decrease (-9.4%), followed by Bizkaia (-6.8%) and, lastly, Gipuzkoa (-2.3%), such that the number of births stood at 2,683, 7,940 and 5,467, respectively.

The birth rate stood at 7.4 births per thousand inhabitants. The highest rate was in Álava (8.2‰), followed by Gipuzkoa (7.6‰) and Bizkaia (7.0‰). In the Basque Country this rate was down 0.4 points compared to 2017 and 2.5 points since 2008.

In 80.8% of births the mothers were aged 30 or over

The largest group was women aged between 30 and 34, who accounted for 35.4% of total births, where the rate registered a fall of six percentage points with respect to 2017. This was followed by mothers aged between 35 and 39 (34.8%), and the group of mothers aged 40 or over, which continues to grow (10.6%), with a rise of five percentage points compared to the previous year. 13.1% of babies were born to mothers aged between 25 and 29, and 5% to mothers aged between 20 and 24. Finally, teenage mothers accounted for 1.1% of the total, slightly down on the previous year (1.2%).

A quarter of mothers were foreign nationals

Regarding nationality, 25.4% of mothers were foreign nationals, who gave birth to 4,079 girls and boys. In 2016 the percentage of foreign mothers was 22.3%. The countries of origin of these mothers were: Morocco, with 760 mothers, Romania (300), Colombia (257), Bolivia (218), Nicaragua (209), Paraguay (184), Algeria (164), Nigeria (158), Honduras (137), Brazil (125) and Ecuador (121).

Foreign mothers had children at a younger age than those of Spanish nationality resident in the Basque Country: in 39.7% of cases they had children under 30, compared to 12.2% of mothers of Spanish nationality.

The average age of mothers was 33.5, with this average being higher, at 34.4, for Spanish mothers, and 30.9 for mothers of foreign nationality. The average age for first-time mothers – those who had their first child in 2018 – was 32.5.

The percentage of births outside marriage continued to increase

In 2018, the number of births outside marriage increased to 7,135, accounting for 44.3% of the total, compared to 43.9% in 2017. Ten years ago, in 2008, the percentage of births registered outside marriage was 30.4%.

Regarding the order of birth, the 8,055 first-born children in 2018 made up 50.1% of the total; second-born, 38.0%; and third-born and subsequent children, 11.9% of the total. The sex ratio among live births in 2018 was 105 boys to every 100 girls. The average weights were 3,320 grams for boys and 3,212 grams for girls.

In terms of place of birth, it is worth noting that 88% of births took place in public hospitals, 11.6% in private hospitals and 0.4% were home-births. The number of births rose to 15,838, of which 15,516 were single, 319 twins and 3 triplets. Out of all births, 883 were premature (5.6%).

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62