Greece and Cyprus have among the lowest fertility rates in the European Union according to the 2018 latest figures released by Eurostat.
Greece recorded 1.35 births for woman, and Cyprus 1.32, slightly below the EU average of 1.55 with the lowest fertility rate observed in Malta (1.23 births per woman), followed by Spain (1.26), Italy (1.29), and Luxembourg (1.38).
Meanwhile France had recorded the highest fertility rate in the EU with 1.88 births per woman followed by Romania and Sweden (both 1.76), Ireland (1.75), Denmark (1.73) and Czechia (1.71).
According to the Eurostat report, in 2018, 5.0 million babies were born in the European Union (EU), a decrease compared with 5.1 million in 2017 and an increase compared with 4.4 million in 2001.
The fertility rate stood at 1.55 births per woman in the EU in 2018, a small decrease from its recent peak in 2016 (1.57), yet an increase compared with 2001 (1.43). The highest total fertility rate since the start of comparable time series was in 2010 (1.57), since then it fluctuated between 1.51 and 1.57.
