Slovenian women choosing motherhood later in life
Ljubljana, 25 March - Slovenian women are choosing motherhood later in life and most often opt to have one child, shows data by the Statistics Office, published for Mother's Day. Slovenian mothers are also more active in the workforce than European mothers on average.
Belgrade, Serbia
A mum playing with her kids in a park.
Photo: Tanjug/STA
File photo
Preliminary data for 2023 shows that 16,769 children were born last year, which is nearly 5% fewer than in 2022 and the lowest figure in the last 50 years.
Overall, Slovenian women are opting to become mothers later in life. In 2002 mothers were on average 28.8 years old when they gave birth, while in 2022 they were on average 31.1 years old.
The share of children born to mothers between the ages of 35 and 39 has almost doubled since 2002, increasing from 10% to 18%. The share of children born to mothers above the age of 40 has also increased, from 2% to 4%.
Slovenian families most often have one child, which is true for 39% of them. Families without children are also increasingly common, accounting for 30% of families.
On the other hand, families with more children are becoming less common as one in four families has two children and only 6% have three or more.
Compared to the EU, Slovenia's mothers are more active in the workforce. Mothers with three or more children stand out especially, with 81.5% of them working; the EU average is 56.7%.