Finland, the EU country with lowest caesarean birth rate
1.4 million babies were born through this method in the EU in 2017.
According to the latest figures from the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat), Finland is the European Union (EU) member state with the lowest rate of caesarean sections.
In 2017 caesarean sections, in other words, the delivery of one or more babies through an incision in a mother's abdomen and uterus, were performed at least 1.4 million times in the EU.
The figures released by Eurostat show that Finland, with a rate of 16.5% of all live births, is the EU country where this method is used less in childbirth.
Decrease
In addition, the data show a decrease of 2,500 in the total number of caesarean sections performed in 2017 compared to 2016.
The Caesarean section numbers are very different when the data of the different EU member states are compared.
Caesareans were most frequent in Cyprus (54.8 % of all live births in 2017), followed by Romania (44.1%), Bulgaria (43.1%), Poland (39.3%) and Hungary (37.3%).
The lowest rates are those from of Finland (16.5%), Sweden (16.6%), Estonia and Lithuania (both 19.4%) and France (19.7%).