Greek women give birth to fewer children at an older age than the average in the EU, according to Eurostat figures for 2016 released on Wednesday. More specifically, Greek women have an average of 1.38 children at the age of 30.3, compared to the EU average which stands at 1.6 children at the age of 29.
Spain and Italy recorded the lowest fertility rates with 1.34 children per woman, followed by Portugal (1.36), Cyprus and Malta (1.37). France was on the other side of the spectrum with 1.92 births per woman, with Sweden coming in second with 1.85, Ireland (1.81) and Denmark and Britain with 1.79.
The data showed that Bulgarian women were the youngest in Europe as they had their first child at an average age of 26, followed by Romania (26.4 years old), Latvia (26.8), Slovakia (27), Poland (27.2) and Lithuania (27.3). In contrast, Italian women bear their first child at 31 years old, followed by Spain (30.8), Luxembourg (30.5) and Greece (30.3). The data also showed that 3.7% of Greek women under 20 had children, compared to the EU average of 5%.