There were 4,228 live births in Iceland in 2018. The number of boys was 2,242 and girls 1,986, i.e. 1,129 boys for every 1,000 girls. The total fertility rate was 1.707, compared with 1.710 in 2017, and has never been so low. The total fertility rate in Iceland peaked during the late 1950s and early 1960s, was 4.27 in 1960 and 4.24 in 1959.
Age-specific fertility rate
The age of mothers at the birth of a child has increased in recent decades. The mean age of primiparas in 2018 was 28.2 years, compared with less than 22 years in the 1970s. Age-specific fertility rate is highest for women aged 25 to 29. Women in that age group had 109 children per 1,000 women in 2018.
One third born to parents in wedlock
Little over 70% of the children born in 2018 were born out of wedlock. However, the majority of children were born to parents in a consensual union (56.4%), while 14.0% were born to parents who were not living together. Close to a third (29.5%) were born to married couples. The share of extramarital births is considerably higher in the case of first born than with children of a higher birth order.
