The European Union (EU) fertility rate fell in 2022 to 1.46 births per woman, with Portugal’s rate rebounding to 1.43 from the previous year’s fall of 1.35, Eurostat said.
In addition to rising birth rates, Portugal also recorded the second highest percentage of first births in the year under review (54.0%) after Luxembourg (54.4%) and above the EU average (46.3%), with the two lowest rates recorded in Latvia (37.9%) and Estonia (39.8%).
France, for its part, had the highest number of births per woman in 2022 (1.79), followed by Romania (1.71), Bulgaria (1.65) and the Czech Republic (1.64).
At the other end of the table with the lowest fertility rates are Malta (1.08 births per woman), Spain (1.16) and Italy (1.24).
In terms of age at first birth, the EU average was 29.7 years, with Portugal coming sixth with 30.4 years, ranging from 26.2 years in Bulgaria to 31.7 years in Italy.
Almost one in four (24.0%) children born in Portugal in 2022 were born to foreign mothers, the second highest increase among EU member states, up 8 percentage points on the previous year, with the main the increase was from 22 to 33 points. %, observed in Malta.
In the EU, the average number of children born to foreign mothers was 22%, with Luxembourg having the highest rate (66%).
According to data published today by the European Statistical Office, 3.88 million babies were born in the EU in 2022, down 4.09 births from 2021, when the figure rose from 1.51 to 1.53.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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