Bulgarian Women Give Birth to their First Child at the Youngest Age Compared to Women in the EU

Bulgarian women are the youngest to give birth to their first child among the women in the European Union. This shows Eurostat data for 2017. The average age at first birth in Bulgaria is 26.1 years, with Romania and Latvia standing just behind our country.

At the latest, the Italians give birth to 31.1 years. The other countries where the average age of first birth is over 30 years are Spain, Luxembourg, Greece and Ireland.

Bulgaria is among the leaders in the EU for first-born women under the age of 20. 13.8 per cent of those born in 2017 fall into this category, with which the country ranks second. Early birth rate leader is Romania with 13.9%.

The highest is the percentage of women over 40 who give birth to the first child, in Spain - 7.4 per cent. Then are Italy, Greece and Luxembourg.

In the year 2017, a total of just over 5 million children were born in the EU. Almost 64,000 of them were born in Bulgaria, half of them are first children. Few more than a third are second children in the family, and 7.9 per cent of the children are the third child.