Malta with lowest fertility rate in EU

VALLETTA, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Malta was the European Union (EU) member state with the lowest fertility rate in 2017, according to data published by Eurostat on Tuesday.

Malta had a fertility rate of 1.26, followed by Spain, 1.31, and Cyprus and Italy, both 1.32. The country with the highest fertility rate was France, with a rate of 1.90.

The European average stood at 1.59. The highest total fertility rate since the start of comparable time series was in 2010 when it reached 1.62, still below the replacement level, which is considered to be 2.1 live births per woman.

Maltese women, it was found, on average give birth at the age of 30.5, while on a European level, women who gave birth to their first child were 29.1, with the mean age having gradually increased from from 28.7 in 2013 to 29.1 in 2017.

Italy had the highest age of first childbirth, at 31.1.

In 2017, there were 5.07 million babies born in the EU. Enditem