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EU registers more newborns, higher fertility rate in 2014

Xinhua, March 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

In 2014, 5.132 million babies were born in the European Union (EU), compared with 5.063 million in 2001, according to data released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU on Tuesday.

Among member states, France continued to record the highest number of births, ahead of Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland.

On average, women who gave birth to their first child in 2014 were nearly 29 years old in the EU, while across member states, first time mothers were the youngest in Bulgaria aged 25.8 and the oldest in Italy aged 30.7. Overall, the fertility rate in the EU increased from 1.46 in 2001 to 1.58 in 2014. In addition, this number varied between member states from 1.23 in Portugal to 2.01 in France.

The largest increases of fertility rate were observed in Latvia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Sweden.

In contrast, the highest decreases were registered in Cyprus, Portugal and Luxembourg.

A total fertility rate of around 2.1 live births per woman is considered to be the replacement level in developed countries, said Eurostat. Endit