Live births in Iceland were 5,027 in 2009, 2,561 boys and 2,466 girls. This is an increase of 192 children from the previous year when live births where 4,835. Never in the history of Iceland have there been more children born in one year. The total fertility rate was 2.22, compared with 2.14 in 2008 and 2.09 in 2007. During the 20th century, the total fertility rate peaked during the early 1960s. The total fertility rate for the years 1960 and 1959 was 4.27 and 4.24, respectively.
Almost two thirds of the children born in 2009 were born out of wedlock. However, the majority of children were born to parents in a consensual union (48.8%), while 15.6% were born to parents who were not living together. Just over a third (35.6%) was born to married couples. The share of extramarital births is considerably higher in the case of first-borns than with children of a higher birth order.
Methods
Live births include in 2009 births outside of Iceland, whose mothers were resident of Iceland at time of birth. Previously these births were counted in the immigration figures. In 2009, 47 births occurred abroad.