Births, 2008

The counties of Rogaland and Sogn og Fjordane have the highest fertility rate with 2.15 and 2.13 children per woman, respectively. Østfold, Hedmark and Telemark are the counties with the lowest fertility rate, 1.85 children per woman in all of them. Apart from the counties of Akershus, Aust-Agder and Nordland, all counties have an increased fertility rate compared with the year before.

Of the 60 500 children born in 2008, 31 100 were boys and 29 400 were girls.

No change in the mother's and father's age at birth

The average age for women giving birth has been stable in the last years. The average age for women giving births for the first time has been 28.1 years for the last four years, and for all births the average age for women has been 30.3 years for the last three years. Women aged 25-29 had the highest fertility rate with 127.0 children per 1 000 women, while the fertility rate for women aged 30-34 was 125.6 children per 1 000 women. The fertility rate increased for all age groups compared with 2007. The average age of the fathers was 33.4 years in 2008, a figure that has been stable for the last six years with values ranging from 33.1 to 33.4 years.

In 2008 there were 1 032 twin births, 14 triple births and one quadruple birth, corresponding to 17.6 multiple births per 1 000 births. The number of multiple births has decreased somewhat since 2002 when multiple births per 1 000 were at their highest with the value 19.4.

44 per cent of the children born in 2008 were first-born, 35 per cent were children number two, 16 per cent were children number three and 6 per cent were children number four or more. The figure for children with parity three has decreased with 3.2 percentage points since 1997.

More single mothers

44 per cent of the children born in 2008 had married parents, 42 per cent¹ had cohabitating parents and 14 per cent¹ had a single mother. The share of children born by a single mother has increased with 5.8 percentage points¹ since 2001. Vest-Agder (59 per cent) and Rogaland (53) counties have the largest share of children with married parents, while Nord-Trøndelag (54¹) and Sør-Trøndelag (52¹) counties have the largest share of children with cohabitating parents. There were most children born by a single mother in the counties of Finnmark (24¹) and Troms (21¹).

¹The numbers has been corrected, 17. 04. 2013.

Tables:

• Table 1 Live births and late foetal deaths. 1951-2008
• Table 2 Confinements of single and multiple births, by sex. 1991-2008
• Table 3 Age-specific fertility rates and total fertility rate. 1961-2008
• Table 4 Average age at birth. 1946-2008
• Table 5 Total fertility rate, by county. 1968-2008
• Table 6 Live births, by parity. 1978-2008
• Table 7 Live births, by parity, cohabitation status of mother and county. 2008
• Table 8 Number of children distributed, by age and cohort . Per cent