Number of newborns in Slovenia up one percent last year

Ljubljana – A total of 18,984 children were born in Slovenia last year, which is 217 or 1% more than in 2020. The average age of the mother at the birth of her first child was 29.6 years, and at the average age at any birth was 31.1 years, the Statistics Office has reported.

There were 9,822 newborn boys and 9,162 newborn girls last year, and the number of newborns per 1,000 residents in 2021 was nine, up from 8.9 in the year before.

On average, 52 children were born every day, which is one more than in 2020. There were 264 pairs of twins, of which 89 pairs were mixed, and there were 84 pairs of boys and 91 pairs of girls.

The average age of the mother at the birth of any child has not changed since 2019, while the figure is the highest since the Second World War. Among those born last year, 45% percent were first-borns and 39% were second-borns.

The majority, 10,958 children or 58% of all children born in Slovenia last year, were born to unmarried mothers and 8,026 were born to married mothers. The average age of married mothers was six months higher that of unmarried mothers.

Some 2,500 children or 13% of all children born last year were born to mothers who were foreign nationals at the time of the birth. Most of them were citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina (46%), followed by Kosovo (19%) and other EU member states (11%).

Like in 2020, the most popular name for girls was Ema (248), while Filip (264) dethroned Luka after 22 years in a row when it comes to boys. The other popular names were Luka, Nik, Mark and Jakob for boys and Zala, Mia, Julija and Hana for girls.

The natural increase rate has been negative since 2017, and it was positive last year only in two summer months. Deaths outnumbered births by 4,277 last year, the Statistics Office said.

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