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Stats: Number of Children Born Outside Marriage Growing
Sunday 27 December 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 27 (TASR) - As many as 57,630 children were born in Slovakia last year, which represents the highest number since 1999, according to a study published by the Research Demographic Centre entitled 'Population Development in Slovakia 2008'.
According to the document, the trend of postponing parenthood until later life continues, and the number of children born outside of wedlock is growing, reaching more than 30 percent last year. Most of these children were born to women with only a basic education.
The mothers of 39 percent of the children born in 2008 were older than 30. In 1995, such births represented only 18 percent of the total. The overall average fertility rate per woman in Slovakia stood at 1.32 children in 2008.
According to the study, the number of births can be expected to rise in the near future, with young people catching up on parental duties that have been postponed so far.
"While until 2000, as many as 90 percent of women gave birth to their first child by the age of 29.9, this age moved to 33 years in 2008. It means that while at the beginning of 90's, a first birth at over 27.5 years was a rare phenomenon, nowadays it is the typical age at which women deliver their first baby, with even more women doing so at an age higher than 30," reads the report.
Despite these figures, Slovak women are still tend to be younger than their counterparts in other EU states.
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