Women in European Union (EU) countries have their first child, on average, at 29 years of age.
This is indicated by figures provided recently by Eurostat for 2016, when 5,148,000 children were born in EU member countries, slightly above the 5,103,000 births in the previous year.
The European women who became mothers at the youngest age were those from Bulgaria (26 years on average), followed by those from Romania (26.4), Latvia (26.8), and Slovakia (27).
In contrast, the highest average age for first-time mothers corresponded to Italy (31 years), followed by Spain (30.8 years).
Around 5% of first births in European Union countries were to mothers under 20 years old; conversely, 3% of first births were to mothers over 40 years old. The countries with the most mothers who had their first child after age 40 were Italy (7.2%), Spain (6.6%), and Greece (5.3%).
1.6 children on average
In 2016, the average fertility rate in the European Union was 1.6 children per woman. The lowest rate corresponded to Spain and Italy (both with an average of 1.34 children), while the highest was France (1.92 children per woman), followed by Sweden (1.85).
Of the non-EU countries, Turkey has the highest fertility rate, with an average of 2.11 children per mother.
The countries where a higher percentage of mothers have four or more children are currently Finland (10.1%), Ireland (9%), United Kingdom (8.5%), Slovakia (8.1%), Romania (7.7%) and Belgium (7.6%).