Rising birth rate in NRW

North Rhine-Westphalia with increasing number of births

07/05/2013

North Rhine-Westphalia records an increase in births. Demographic change and its possible consequences for society have been hotly debated for many years. Again and again, previous population forecasts had to be revised down when the current birth rates were published. For the first time, light appears at the end of the tunnel in NRW.

The number of births increased in 2012 according to the North Rhine-Westphalian State Statistics Office in Dusseldorf in 2012 compared to the previous year by 1.9 percent „The number of newborns (is) compared to the previous historic low in 2011“ from 143,097 births increased by 2,658 to 145,755 births, reports the Statistical Office. Striking is the rather high average age of women at the birth of their first child. This was according to official figures in NRW in 2012 at 29.2 years. There were also a considerable number of multiple births among the births. „2,657 women gave birth to multiple births last year, including 2,594 twin and 63 triple births“, so the message of the national office for statistics.

Nearly half of the newborns in North Rhine-Westphalia were born as the first child of his mother, 49,040 children or almost 34 percent of the newborn as a second child, 17,664 children (12.1 percent) as a third and 8,732 children (6 percent) as a fourth or further child , reports the State Statistics Office. The second children were born in almost 45 percent of the cases (21,964 children) less than three years after the birth of their first child. The third-born were about 65 percent born at an interval of more than three years to their next older siblings. In the fourth or further births, the difference to the previous child in some 60 percent of the cases even more than four years, explained the Statistical Office.

Regional differences in births
However, the positive development of births in NRW is by no means evident in all regions. „While more children were born in 37 independent cities and districts as well as in the Aachen region than in the previous year, there was a decline in the other administrative districts“, reports the State Statistics Office. The most significant increases in births were registered by Mönchengladbach with an increase of 9.7 percent and Gelsenkirchen with a plus of 7.8 percent. The drastic slump in birth rates had to cope with the independent city of Remscheid (with a decrease of 5.2 percent) and the district of Heinsberg (-3.9 percent). A general trend reversal in births in NRW can hardly be mentioned here, given the continued decline in birth rates in some regions, but initial positive signs are showing. (Fp)

Picture: Helene Souza