More than a fifth of European babies in 2012 were born to women aged 35 or older, data released Wednesday showed, according to dap.
Births by women aged over 35 was the highest in Spain, representing
34 per cent of all newborns in the country in 2012 after the numbers jumped by 12 percentage points over the last 10 years, the German statistics office said.
That figure was 33 per cent in Italy and 30 per cent in Ireland.
In Greece, Luxembourg and Portugal every fourth child born was to a mother aged 35 or more, the statistics office said.
Births by older mothers in Germany, Sweden and Denmark represented
about 22 per cent of the total in each country. This was also the average for the 28-member European Union.
The numbers were lower in France and Britain at 19 and 20 per cent,respectively. Finland had the lowest rate in the EU of 0.2 per cent.
The number of newborns whose mothers were 35 or older grew in Germany
by four percentage points from 131,000 in 2002 to 147,000 in 2012,
the data showed.
The rise took place at the same time when the total number of births
in the country declined from 719,000 to 674,000.
The average age of women giving birth for the first time was 29,
Germany's Institute for Population Research (BiB) said in releasing
separate figures.