Almost 19,000 live births in 2021
Of the 18,984 children born in 2021, 217 (1%) more than a year before, 9,822 were boys and 9,162 were girls. Nine children were born per 1,000 population, which is slightly more than in the previous year (8.9).
The mean age of mother at birth the same in the past three years
The mean age of mother at birth has not changed since 2019. On average, women gave birth at the age of 31.1 years and first-time mothers at the age of 29.6 years. These are the highest values since World War II.
The total fertility rate in 2021 was 1.64. Relatively the most children were born to women aged 27–32 years. The most (138) children were born to 1,000 women aged 29. For the last time so many children were given birth by 1,000 women at the age of 22 in 1989.
Almost half of children (45%) were first born; additional 39% were second order births.
58% of children born to unmarried mothers
8,026 children were born to married mothers and 10,958 (58%) to unmarried mothers. 245 of those mothers were married later in 2021. The mean age of married mothers was six months higher than the mean age of unmarried mothers.
13% of mothers with foreign citizenship
2,500 (13%) of all children were born to mothers with foreign citizenship. Most of those mothers had the citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina (46%), followed by Kosovo (19%). 11% of the mothers with foreign citizenship had the citizenship of one of the other EU Member States.
Mothers with foreign citizenship were on average 29.4 years old and were two years younger than mothers with Slovene citizenship (31.4). Mothers with foreign citizenship were also two years younger at first birth.
Some additional interesting findings for new-borns in 2021:
After 22 consecutive years, the most popular name for boys is no longer Luka, but Filip. This name was given to 264 new-born boys. The list of the top girls’ names is more varied and changes a lot. In the past 23 years, seven different names were ranked first, but in 2021, the name stayed the same as in 2020: Ema. The name was given to 248 girls. In addition to Filip and Ema, the top five names were Luka, Nik, Mark and Jakob for boys and Zala, Mia, Julija and Hana for girls.
The new-borns were given approximately 1,300 different boys' names and 1,300 girls' names. 60% of these names appeared only once. 1,145 children got a combination of two (or more) family names and 546 a combination of two first names. 48 children, 21 boys and 27 girls, got a combination of combined first names as well as combined family names.
On average, 52 children per day were born in Slovenia (one more than a year before), during the weekend 10 fewer (42), on a weekday (from Monday to Friday) on average 56. The most children (77) were born on Thursday, 29 July, the fewest (24) on Sunday, 7 March.
50 mothers gave birth on their birthday, 11 mothers on the wedding anniversary.
In 264 cases, twins were born, among those 89 mixed couples. In 84 cases, two boys were born, and in 91 cases, two girls were born.
Data by statistical regions
Regarding fertility, there are significant differences between statistical regions. The fewest children per 1,000 population (7.7) were born in Obalno-kraška and Pomurska statistical regions, and the most, three more (10.7), in Jugovzhodna Slovenija. Jugovzhodna Slovenija has been the region with the highest fertility. Mothers who gave birth to the first child were in this region the youngest (28.8 years). They were the oldest in Obalno-kraška and Osrednjeslovenska regions (30.3 years). Traditionally, the region with the highest share of unmarried mothers has been Koroška (7 out of 10 children were born to unmarried mothers), and the region with the lowest share Osrednjeslovenska (5 out of 10).
Natural decrease the second largest since 1945
In Slovenia, natural decrease has been recorded every year since 2017, as more people die each year than are born. Natural increase was recorded in 2021 only in two summer months. The value of natural increase in 2021 was −4,277 or −2.0 per 1,000 population.
Tables on births and names and natural increase of population with the latest data are available in the SiStat Database.
