“Flemish birth rate shows strongest increase in 20 years”

In 2021, 66.560 children were born in Flanders, 2.949 more than the year before. At 4,6 percent, this is the highest birth rate increase in the past twenty years. This was shown Friday by figures from the Flemish Agency for Growing Up.

“In recent years the birth rate has been on a downward trend, an increase of this magnitude has not even been recorded in the last twenty years”, responds Niels Heselmans, spokesman for the agency.

“The evolution is partly caused by the increase in the number of women in the age category between 29 and 35 years, but can mainly be attributed to the fact that Belgian women produced more children in 2021”, explains Diederik Vancoppenolle, scientific advisor at the Agency for Growing Up.

The coronavirus pandemic may have also played a role, Vancoppenolle states. “It is possible that families postponed their desire to have children in 2020 until the pandemic receded more into the background.”

Birth rates in the provinces of East Flanders (+7%) and Antwerp (+5,4%) showed the strongest increase.

(BRV)

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© BELGA PHOTO SOPHIE MIGNON