The decrease in the Finnish birth rate, which had continued for nine years, came to a halt in 2020.
According to Statistics Finland, altogether 46,463 children were born last year, which is 850 children more than in the previous year. In 2019, the number of births still decreased by 1,964 children from the year before.
The birth rate is commonly measured with the total fertility rate, which indicates how many children a woman would give birth to during her life time if the birth rate remained the same as in the year on which the calculation is based.
In the past decade, the birth rate decreased significantly. The total fertility rate fell from 1.87 children in 2010 to 1.35 children per woman in 2019, which was the lowest ever birth rate in Finland.
In 2020, the birth rate rose slightly from this, to 1.37 children per woman.
Examined by age group, the birth rate rose slightly in the 25 to 39 age groups in 2020.
The age group-specific fertility rate increased most among women aged 30 to 34. For them, the fertility rate was 95 children per one thousand women in 2020, while in the previous year it was 92 children.
The fertility rate also increased slightly in the 25 to 29 age group and in the 35 to 40 age group.
First-time parents
On average, first-time mothers were aged 29.7 years, 0.1 years older than in the previous year.
First-time fathers were, on average, of the same age as in the previous year, 31.6 years, on average.
Although the birth rate halted in 2020, new families with children did not become relatively more common. A total of 344 more first-born children were born than in 2019.
In municipalities with at least 50,000 inhabitants, the birth rate was highest in Porvoo, where the total fertility rate was 1.56 in the five-year period 2016 to 2020.
The second highest rates were found in Espoo and Seinäjoki, 1.54.
Respectively, the birth rate in the period 2016 to 2020 was lowest in Helsinki and Turku, where the total fertility rates were 1.16.
