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Eurostat data released Thursday shows 4.09 million babies were born in the European Union in 2021 — a 20,000 increase from 2020.
This uptick is the first increase in the number of births in the EU since 2016.
Although the lockdown measures implemented throughout Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic had led to speculation as to whether these would lead to a birth surge, birth rates actually decreased in 2020, before rising again in 2021 in some countries.
This caused some scientists to believe people had simply waited for the initial shock of the pandemic to pass to have children.
The fertility rate (the average number of children a woman is projected to have over her lifetime) also increased for the first time since 2016, with an EU average of 1.53 live births per woman — up from 1.50 in 2020.
France had the highest fertility rate in Europe, with 1.84 live births per woman, while Malta had the lowest at 1.13 live births per woman.
