Figures released on Thursday by the Belgian Bureau of Statistics Statbel show that the number of babies born in Belgium in 2021 was 3.7% higher than it was in 2020. Although the birth rate had returned to where it was in 2019 there was still no real recovery after what have been years of decline in the number of babies being born here.
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Birth rate returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021
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Although the number of births increased in 2021 in both Flanders and Wallonia, a slight decrease of 1% was recorded in the Brussels-Capital Region.
In March 2021, around nine months after the most severe measures of the first lockdown had come to an end, there were 3.1% more births than there had been in March 2020. However, the number of births in January 2021 (babies conceived at the beginning of the first lockdown) was 10% down on January 2020.
According to Statbel, the birth rate in 2021 returned to its 2019 level. This means that the figures simply show a catching up effect post-corona rather than a real upturn in the birth-rate figures after a decade of decline. According to provisional figures for 2022, the birth rate fell again last year.
Statbel’s figures also show that in Belgium the average mother is now 29.6 years old when she gives birth to her first child.