Press release 29/06/2020

BIRTH STATISTICS. 2019

Births in the Basque Country fell by 4.2% in 2019

41.2% of foreign mothers were under 30, compared with 12.2% of mothers of Spanish nationality

In 2019 the number of births in the Basque Country stood at 15,418, down 4.2% on the previous year, according to Eustat data. Among mothers of Spanish nationality the decrease was 6.8%, whilst among foreign mothers the number of births increased by 3.5%.

Regarding the distribution by province, Gipuzkoa saw the greatest decrease (-6.1%), followed by Álava (-4.4%) and, lastly, Bizkaia (-2.8%), such that the number of births stood at 5,133, 2,565 and 7,720, respectively.

The birth rate stood at 7 births per thousand inhabitants. The highest rate was in Álava (7.8‰), followed by Gipuzkoa (7.2‰) and Bizkaia (6.8‰). In the Basque Country this rate fell 0.4 points in respect of 2018 and 2.7 points since 2009, the year in which the birth rate saw its maximum upturn this century.

In 79.8% of births the mothers were aged 30 or over

The largest group was women between 30 and 34 years old, who account for 35.4% of total births, the same as in 2018. This was followed by mothers aged between 35 and 39 with 34.1%. The group of mothers aged 40 or over remained above 10% (10.4%), with a fall of 0.2 percentage points in respect of the previous year. 13.0% of babies were born to mothers aged between 25 and 29, and 5.9% to mothers aged between 20 and 24. Finally, teenage mothers accounted for 1.3% of the total, two tenths up on the previous year.

27.4% of mothers were foreign nationals

Regarding nationality, 27.4% of mothers were foreign nationals, who gave birth to 4,223 girls and boys. In 2018 the percentage of foreign mothers was 25.4%. The main countries of origin of these mothers were: Morocco, with 843 mothers, Colombia (325), Romania (286), Nicaragua (225), Bolivia (199), Paraguay (168), Algeria (158), Honduras (147), Nigeria (141), Brazil (132), Venezuela (131) and Ecuador (130).

Foreign mothers had children at a younger age than those of Spanish nationality resident in the Basque Country: in 41.2% of cases they had children under 30 years of age, compared to 12.2% of mothers of Spanish nationality.

The average age of all mothers was 33.3, somewhat lower than the previous year (33.5), but this value rose to 34.3, for Spanish mothers, and stood at 30.7 for mothers of foreign nationality. The average age for first-time mothers – those who had their first child in 2019 – was 32.3.

The percentage of births outside marriage continued to increase

In 2019, the number of births outside marriage increased to 6,946, accounting for 45.1% of the total, whereas in 2018 it was 44.4%. Ten years ago, in 2009, the percentage of births registered outside marriage was 31.2%.

Regarding the order of birth, the 7,553 first-born children in 2019 made up 49% of the total; second-borns, 38.1%; and third-borns and subsequent children, 12.9% of the total. The sex ratio among live births in 2019 was 105 boys to every 100 girls. The average weights were 3,337.5 grams for boys and 3,213.1 grams for girls.

In terms of place of birth, it is worth noting that 89.3% of births took place in public hospitals, 10.4% in private hospitals and 0.4% were home-births. The number of births rose to 15,226, of which 14,968 were single, 252 twins and 6 triplets. Out of all births, 854 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