Brazil records fewer births in almost 50 years, says IBGE

Year by year, Brazilian women are having fewer children, which caused the country to register the fewer births in almost 50 years . In 2023, the country saw the number of births fall for the fifth year in a row . There were 2.52 million born, a 0.7% reduction compared to 2022.

This amount is 12% lower than the average birth in the five years prior to Covid-19 pandemic, ie 2015 to 2019 (2.87 million).

The information is part of the Civil Registry Statistics research, released this Friday (16) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The institute sought the information in notaries spread across the country.

The total number of birth records reaches 2.6 million in 2023, but IBGE clarifies that 2.9% of them (75 thousand) are from people born in previous years, but recorded only by 2023.

The IBGE also presented a historical series started in 1974 with birth numbers that occurred and recorded in the year, but the data in which the mother’s residence is not known or abroad is excluded. In this series, the number of records of 2023 (2.518 million) is the lowest since 1976 (2.467 million).

Despite the trend of decrease in the number of births, the manager of the Civil Registration Research, Klivia Brayner de Oliveira, considers that the finding of being the smallest quantity of the series in almost 50 years has to take into account the subregional, which was larger in the past.

“In many places, there are births and deaths that were not registered,” he says, emphasizing that, currently, the data is very close to reality.

For the researcher, the decrease in the number of births in the country has to do with factors such as costs to raise children, dissemination of contraceptive methods, including between low -income people, and other priority of women, such as work and training.

“Women postponing the desire to want children, giving priority to studies,” he says.

“As age is going through, you will postpone this decision to have children, and the chance to have more children is also a minor,” adds the IBGE analyst.

The researcher at IBGE Cintia Simões Agostinho adds that the fall of births is not a phenomenon only of Brazil. “In developed countries, developing countries, it is a well -known phenomenon,” he points out.

Mother’s Age

The survey shows that Brazilian mothers are deciding to have children with an older age. In 2003, 20.9% of births were generated by women up to 19 years old, a percentage that fell to 11.8% in 2023.

When the woman is from 30 years old, the proportions went from 23.9% to 39% in the period. Specifically among mothers, 40 or older, the brand doubled from 2.1% to 4.3%. In 2023 there were 109 thousand births of mothers in this age group.

When analyzed by regions, it is possible to realize that the North and the Northeast have greater participation of women up to 19 years old who had children in 2023, 18.7% and 14.3%, respectively. In the south, the mark was 8.8%.

On the other hand, while the North had 29.3% of 2023 born by mothers 30 years or older, this level reached 42.9% in the Southeast.

Federation units with the highest proportion of births generated by mothers up to 19 years in 2023:

• Acre: 21.4%
• Amazonas: 20.5%
• Pará: 19.2%
• Maranhão: 18.9%
• Roraima: 17.9%
• Amapá: 17.8%

Federation units with higher proportion of births generated by mothers 30 years or older in 2023:

• Federal District: 49.4%
• Rio Grande do Sul: 44.3%
• São Paulo: 44.3%
• Santa Catarina: 42.9%
• Minas Gerais: 42.8%

For the researcher Klivia de Oliveira, the explanation for women to have younger children in the North and Northeast has to do with cultural issues and precarious situations, such as difficulty health services to guide contraceptive methods, as well as lack of perspective.

“Economically favored women with more difficulty tend to have more children,” he notes.

This content was originally published in Brazil records fewer births in almost 50 years, says IBGE on CNN Brazil.

Source: CNN Brasil