Eurostat: Bulgaria has the highest share of births outside marriage in the EU

European Union statistics agency Eurostat said on July 17 that 58.5% of live births in Bulgaria in 2018 were outside marriage,

The proportion of live births outside marriage in the EU was 42% in 2018. This is 17 percentage points above the value in 2000.

On the Balkans, Bulgaria is followed by Kosovo with 38.7%, Serbia - 26.8% and Croatia with 20.7%.

They are followed by North Macedonia with 12.1% and Greece with 11.1%. There are no data for Albania and Montenegro.

In 2018, in eight EU Member States, most newborns were born out of wedlock - France - nearly 60%, Bulgaria - nearly 59%, Slovenia - 58%, Portugal - 56%, Sweden - 55%, Denmark and Estonia - 54% each and the Netherlands 52%.

Extramarital births increased in almost every EU member state in 2018 compared to 2000. The exceptions are Estonia, Latvia and Sweden that remained relatively stable with less than one percentage point decrease.

The highest growth of extramarital births is in Portugal and Spain, where between 2000 and 2018 there is a change by + 33.7% in Portugal and + 29.6% in Spain.