The average age - regardless of the birth order - is exactly 31 years for the mother and 34.2 years for the co-parent. At the birth of her first child, the average age of a mother is now 29.3 years and that age has increased by two years since 2000.
In 2019, 117,103 children were born, according to the latest final statistics on births. That is a decrease of 0.6% in the number of newborn children compared to 2018. This decrease is strongest in Brussels (-3.0%), followed by Flanders (-1.0%), while there is a slight increase in Wallonia (+1.2%).
In the majority of cases (85.1%), the newborn child is welcomed by a united couple (married or cohabiting) In 14.9% of cases, the mother giving birth is single. Moreover, as has been the case since 2015, more than half of the children were born out of wedlock (52.8%) in 20191.
It also appears that one child out of five is delivered by caesarean section in Belgium (21.1% of cases). This trend is relatively stable.
The total fertility rate decreases further to 1.60 children per woman. It is particularly low in Limburg (1.49 children per woman) and in East Flanders (1.50 children per woman) while in the province of Luxembourg it amounts to 1.75 and in the Brussels-Capital Region to 1.70 children per woman.