Fewer Births

In 1998, 58,400 children were born in Norway, giving a total fertility of 1.81 children per woman, which is a slight decline in fertility compared with the previous year. It is the first time since 1988 that the number of births has sunk below 59,000.

The ten-year period from 1988 to the present has been a stable decade, where the birth rate has remained around 60,000 births per year. In the last two years, however, the number of live births has declined a little from one year to the next and is now the lowest that has been registered for ten years. It is too early to say whether the decline is due to the decreasing yearly cohorts of women, a trend that is now beginning to become apparent.

Last year there were 928 multiple births, i.e. 16.1 multiple births per 1,000 births, which is somewhat fewer than in 1997. There were 903 twin births, 23 triple births and two quadruple births. In addition, there has been a marked long-term reduction in the number of late foetal deaths. In 1998 there were 4.2 late foetal deaths per 1000 children born.

More born out of wedlock

Year by year more children have been born out of wedlock, and in the past year these amounted to almost half of all births. This is a trend that has gradually developed over the last thirty years. Since 1991 the percentage of children born out of wedlock has been greater than 40 per cent, and in 1998 it was closer to 50 per cent. According to Statistics on Children as of 1 January 1998, about 36 per cent of all children under one year of age lived with cohabitating natural parents.

The average age of mothers at the time of their first birth increased slightly from last year and was 27.2 at the time of their first birth. When all births were included, the average age was 29.3. In the last twenty years the greatest number of children have been born by mothers who are in the 25-29 year old age group.

Stable fertility

The fertility of Norwegian women measured in total fertility (SFT), has been slightly declining in the past two years and was 1.81 in 1998. Historically, fertility in Norway declined rapidly from the close of the previous century and amounted to 1.78 in 1935, after which it rose to a peak of 3.0 around 1965. Thereafter, the fertility sank, most rapidly in the period up to 1977 when it was down to 1.75. Since then SFT declined slightly to 1.66 in 1983 and then increased steadily to 1.93 in 1990. The yearly average for the period 1991-1996 was 1.88, while in the past two years there has been a slight decline in total fertility.

On the basis of the annual statistics for 1997, we find that the total fertility for Norwegian women is relatively high by European standards. Ireland was the country with a fertility closest to Norway's with 1.97 children per woman. Iceland was the only Nordic country with a higher fertility than Norway with 2.04 children per woman. This is shown by figures from the Statistical Office of the European Communities, Eurostat.

New Statistics
Population statistics. Births, 1998.
The statistics are published annually in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. For more information contact: Kirsten.Enger.Dybendal@ssb.no, tel.: +47 62 88 52 96, or Trude.Jakobsen@ssb.no, tel.: +47 62 88 51 39. Population Statistics has an answering service, which is open from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, tel.: +47 62 88 54 00.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 21, 1999