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Spain and Italy (both 1.34 births per woman), Portugal (1.36), Cyprus and Malta (both 1.37), Greece (1.38) and Poland (1.39), had the lowest fertility rates in the EU, for 2016, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU.
Conversely, France (1.92 births per woman) and Sweden (1.85) were the two Member States with the highest total fertility rates in EU. They were followed by Ireland (1.81), Denmark and the United Kingdom (both 1.79).
In 2016, the mean age of mothers at the first childbirth varied between the EU Member States.
The lowest mean age for the first childbirth was recorded in Bulgaria (26.0 years), followed by Romania (26.4), Latvia (26.8), Slovakia (27.0), Poland (27.2) and Lithuania (27.3). In contrast, the mother’s age for the first childbirth was above 30 in Italy (31.0 years), Spain (30.8), Luxembourg (30.5), Greece (30.3) and Ireland (30.1).
The mean age of women at birth of the first child was 29.6 years
In Cyprus 4,315 babies were born in 2016. The age of their mothers varied from under 20 for 3.1%, 20-29 for 51.0%, 30-39 for 43.3%, and over 40 for 2.6%. The mean age of women at birth of the first child was 29.6 years.
Of all births in Cyprus for 2016, 46% of the women had their first child, 37.7% their second, 12.4% their third and 3.9% their fourth or more.
The highest shares of births of a first child to teenage mothers were recorded in Romania (14.2%), Bulgaria (13.6%) and Hungary (10.8%), ahead of Slovakia (9.9%), Lithuania (6.3%), the United Kingdom (6.2%) and Latvia (6.1%). On the other hand, the lowest shares were observed in Slovenia (1.6%), Italy (1.7%), the Netherlands (1.8%), Denmark and Sweden (both 1.9%), as well as in Luxembourg (2.2%).
In contrast, the highest proportions of births of a first child to women aged 40 and over were registered in Italy (7.2% of total births of the first child), Spain (6.6%), Greece (5.3%), Luxembourg (4.8%) and Ireland (4.3%).
In the EU 81.9% of births were first and second children, while births of third children accounted for 12.2% of the total and fourth or subsequent children accounted for 5.9% in 2016. Across the EU Member States, the highest share of mothers having their fourth or subsequent children was recorded in Finland (10.1%), followed by Ireland (9.0%), the United Kingdom (8.5%), Slovakia (8.1%), Romania (7.7%) and Belgium (7.6%).
