The number of newborn children in Macedonia has declined for a fifth year in a row. There were 19.845 newborns in 2019, a drop of 7 percent compared to 2018.

That’s 3.230 less compared to a year as recent as 2015. The statistics are getting worse in 2020, with just 4.191 newborns in the first quarter of the year, which is a drop of 8 percent compared to last year.

As reported by the State Statistics Bureau, the average age of the mothers was 29,2 years – 27,5 for mothers who had their first child. This is an increase compared to 2015, when the average ages were 28,7 and 27 years. In 16 cases the mothers were under 15 years, and 13,4 percent of all births were outside of marriage. Male babies made 51,8 percent of all births, indicating sex selective abortions.