(28 March 2018) – In 2016, 5.148 million babies were born in the European Union, compared with 5.103 million in 2015. On average in the EU, women who gave birth to their first child in 2016 were 29 years old.
In 2016, 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). Conversely, the lowest fertility rates were observed in 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).
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).