Finland's birth rate has declined considerably in the last decade and is now the lowest in the Nordic Countries.
According to Statistics Finland's latest figures, the country's birth rate has decreased in nine years by almost 28%, from 1.87 in 2010 to 1.35 children per woman in 2019.
In terms of the number of births, this means a drop from 61,000 births in 2010 to 45,600 births in 2019. However, the decrease in the birth rate in recent years at the fairly steady annual rate of 5% seems to have diminished, as the fall amounted to 4.2% in 2019.
During the same period of time, the number of births has also fallen in relative terms more steeply in Finland than in all the Nordic countries. Since 2014, Finland has had the lowest birth rate in the Nordic countries.
In 2019, the birth rate fell in all Nordic countries, except for Iceland, where the decline ended in 2018. Last year, the birth rate rose slightly in Iceland from the previous year and was 1.75 children per woman.
Fewer births from Finnish women
Source: Statistics Finland.
The share of women with Finnish background in the birth rate decreased by one percentage point to 85% in 2019 when measured with the total fertility rate.
The total fertility rate for the whole country was 1.35 children per woman, of which the share of those with Finnish background was 1.15 children per woman.
Nine years before, in 2010, the total fertility rate for the whole country was 1.87 children per woman, of which 1.72 were of Finnish background. It corresponded to 92% of the birth rate in the whole country.
