Some 3.67 million babies were born in the EU in 2023, a 5.4% decrease on the previous year – the largest annual decline since 1961, data from Eurostat has revealed.
According to the data, the total fertility rate in 2023 stood at 1.38 live births per woman in the EU, down from 1.46 in 2022.
Bulgaria had the highest fertility rate of any EU country in 2023, with 1.81 live births per woman, followed by France (1.66) and Hungary (1.55), while the lowest fertility rates were seen in Malta (1.06), Spain (1.12) and Lithuania (1.18).
At an EU level, 29.8 years was the average age of women at the birth of their first child, ranging from 26.9 in Bulgaria to 31.8 in Italy.
‘During the period 1961–2022, the highest annual total for the number of live births in the EU was recorded in 1964, at 6.8 million children. From this comparative high until the beginning of the 21st century, the birth rate in the EU declined at a relatively steady pace, reaching a low of 4.36 million in 2002,’ Eurostat noted. Read more here.
Fertility Rates by EU Country (Births per Woman), 2023
| Country | Fertility Rate |
|---|---|
| Bulgaria | 1.81 |
| France | 1.66 |
| Hungary | 1.55 |
| Romania | 1.54 |
| Slovenia | 1.51 |
| Denmark | 1.50 |
| Ireland | 1.50 |
| Slovakia | 1.49 |
| Belgium | 1.47 |
| Croatia | 1.47 |
| Czechia | 1.46 |
| Portugal | 1.45 |
| Sweden | 1.45 |
| Netherlands | 1.43 |
| Cyprus | 1.40 |
| Germany | 1.39 |
| Latvia | 1.36 |
| Austria | 1.32 |
| Estonia | 1.31 |
| Greece | 1.26 |
| Finland | 1.26 |
| Luxembourg | 1.25 |
| Italy | 1.21 |
| Poland | 1.20 |
| Lithuania | 1.18 |
| Spain | 1.12 |
| Malta | 1.06 |
