Live births, Slovenia, 2007

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Almost 20 thousand live births
In 2007, 19,823 children were born, this is the most in the past fifteen years. The number of boys exceeded 10 thousand; 10,152 boys and 9,671 girls were born. Compared to the previous year the number of newborn children increased by 891 (4.3%); since 2003 when in Slovenia the lowest number of live births was registered, this number has been gradually increasing. On average 9.8 children were born per 1,000 population (9.4 in 2006).

The total fertility rate, which is the average number of live born children per one woman in her reproductive age (at the present mortality rate and on the assumption that the woman will reach her 49^th birthday), was 1.38 in 2007. Similar values were registered in the beginning of the 1990s. The fertility of the population of Slovenia is still below the population replacement level but it has been on the rise in the last four years.

More and more old mothers
The process of postponing motherhood still has not finished. As in the last few years, the mean age of the mother at first childbirth and at all births has increased again by 0.2 years. In 2007, mothers were on average 29.9 years old. First-time mothers averaged 28.2 years in age. This is the highest value for first-time mothers after World War II.

In the mid-1970s, first-time mothers were on average less than 23 years old. After that the mean age began to increase because many women were postponing motherhood. Women attended school longer, their participation in higher education increased and more women entered employment.

The most fertile group of women in 2007 were those aged 28-30 years. 1,000 women at that age gave birth to 119 children on average. In 2006 this age group was the most fertile, but the values were lower. 15 years ago it was mothers at the age of 23 years who gave birth to the mentioned number of children.

Compared to 2006, fertility increased the most among mothers at the age of 34. In 2007, one third of first-time mothers (3,108) were older than 30 years.

Less first-born, more second- and third-born children
Compared to 2006, in 2007 the share of second- and third-born children increased slightly. The share of first-born children has decreased consequently (to 48.7%).

1,805 women who gave birth in 2007 were not born in Slovenia
9% of all women who gave birth in 2007 had their first residence after birth abroad and they then migrated to Slovenia. The mean age of these women does not differ from the mean age of the women who were born in Slovenia.

Father on average 2,8 years older than mother
The mean age of a father in 2007 was 32.7 years. The most fathers were between 30 and 34 years of age, each tenth was already older than 40.
Very young fathers are rare. There were only a few teenager mothers who gave birth in 2007. With 0.4%, teenage fathers are also an exception. Also the share of fathers under the age of 25 was low (5%).

Lana and Luka
In 2007 the most girls (302 or 3.1%) were named Lana. After ten years the girls’ most popular name has changed: for 9 years Nika has namely been on the top 20 list of girls’ names. In 2007, Nika dropped to the fourth place.
Beside Lana, the most popular names were also Sara, Eva, Nika, Lara, Ana, Zala, Ema and Neža. Each fifth girl born in 2007 has one of these names.
Compared to the previous year two names (Kaja and Tjaša) disappeared from the top 20 most popular girls’ names and were substituted by Ajda and Lea.
Short baby names are in fashion. In 2007, the most popular girls’ name with more than five letters was on the 20^th place; this is the name Julija. Three names only contained a letter č, š or ž. These names are Neža and Maša (9^th and 10^th place) and Živa (18^th place).
In 2007, only 13 girls were named with the most frequent female Slovene name, Marija. The name is the 104^th most common name of those born in 2007. With a combination with another name, the name Marija appeared 14 times additionally, the most frequent as a second name.
820 girls (8%) were named with a unique name.

In 2007, Luka remained the most popular boys’ name for the ninth year in succession. 351 boys (3.5%) were named as Luka in 2007, 90 boys less were named as Nik, the second most frequented name. Other popular boys’ names are Jan, Nejc, Žan, Žiga, Anže, Matic, and Aljaž.
The names Tim and Anej disappeared from the top 20 list of the most popular names compared to 2006 and the names Gal and Filip entered the list. Three newborn boys got the name Franc, another three Jože, six of the boys were named as Ivan and other six as Anton which are all the most frequent Slovene male names. 310 boys got a double name.

Double names, double family names
Compiled family names are significant for two population groups: for married women and little children. The most men with a compiled family name are among little boys until the age of 15. After 1990 the share of those children that are named with a combined family name is on the rise. Each year more and more children are named with a combined family name: in 2007, 5.7% (556 girls and 571 boys). This probably occurs in relation to the share of parents who are cohabitating and are not married.

317 boys and 341 girls got a combined name in 2007. Among boys the most popular name was Žan Luka, among girls Ana Marija. Both names are the most frequent combined names in Slovenia. Other combined names are unique, only a few appear twice or even three times.

• 2007_MUNICIPALITIES, 47kB