ZAGREB, August 17, 2019 – Most women in Croatia give birth at the age of 30-34 and annual statistics show that most women give birth for the first time as well as that the number of mothers with university education has been on the rise.
Figures from the Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) show that in 2018, 37,277 children were born, 700 more than in the previous year but still fewer than in many earlier years.
Two in five mothers gave birth to their first child in 2018 and one in five gave birth to their third child.
In the past few years, most women gave birth at the age of 30-34, and their percentage in 2018 as well as in earlier years was around 34%, followed by women aged 25-29.
“Starting a family increasingly late in one’s life has to do with the socio-economic status of young people who find employment and solve their housing problem increasingly late in their life,” the HZJZ says.
The largest number of women who gave birth in the last few years were first-time mothers. In 2018, they accounted for 40% of all new mothers, while in 2016 their percentage was 50%.
Those who gave birth to their second child in the last few years accounted for around 32% of new mothers, and 20% of women who gave birth in 2018 gave birth to their third child, the highest percentage since 2001.
Figures for 2017 indicate that women in Croatia give birth to their first child at the age of 28, which is below the EU average of 29.1 years.
According to the national statistical office, the number of newborns whose mothers had university qualifications at the time they gave birth to them, has been rising by the year.
In 2017, around 10,000 of the women who gave birth had university qualifications and their number has been growing since 2014, when such records started to be taken.
Over the last two decades, the ratio of male and female babies was constant, with minor oscillations, the annual ratio being 51:49.
Three in four children in 2018 were born vaginally, while in 24% of the cases the baby was delivered by a C-section.
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