In 2013, the European Union welcomed more than 5.1 million newborns, nearly half of which, or about 2.3 million, were the first child in their families. About half of European women were 28.7 years old when they had their first child. Following Spain and Italy, the countries where women wait the longest to have their first child are Luxembourg (average age of 30) and Greece (average age of 29.9). Meanwhile, those who become mothers earliest are women in Romania (average age of 25.8) and Bulgaria (average age of 25.7).
Spain and Italy are also countries with a relatively high number of women having their first child after the age of 40, with 6.1% of women in Italy having their first child in their 40s, and 5.1% in Spain.
In 2013, among the 223,843 newborn Spanish babies, the majority were the first child in their families. The first child accounted for 52.7% of the total newborns in 2013, the second child accounted for 26.8%, the third child accounted for nearly 7.9%, the fourth child accounted for 2.6%, and some families even had more children.
Regarding the age at which Spanish women choose to have their first child, 59.4% choose to do so at 30, 32% of women have their first child in their 20s, 5.1% of women choose to have their first child at 40, and in addition, 3.5% of women have their first child before the age of 20.
Data provided by Eurostat shows that in 2013, a total of 127,000 young women became mothers across the European Union, and 65,500 women over the age of 40 had their own children.