More women decide to give birth to children outside marriage

A number of 40,803 children were born in Moldova last year, up 4.6% (1,785) from a year before. More than a half of them (51.7%) are boys, the sex ratio being 107 boys to 100 girls, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting the National Bureau of Statistics. The birth rate in rural areas continues to be higher than in urban areas. 22.9% of the total number of newborns (9,351) last year were born outside marriage, a 7.5% increase compared with 2008. The number of children born outside marriage increased both in the rural and urban areas. The women younger than 20 gave birth to 9.9% of the children born last year, as against 10.5% in 2008 (13.0% in 2006). Most of the babies born in families with many children are from rural areas – 80.9% of the total number of newborns in this group. The average age of the mothers at he first birth is 23.3. The women from rural areas become mothers at the age of 22.4 on average, while those from urban areas – at 24.6.