Analytics, Demography, Estonia, Statistics

In 2018, the number of children born per woman was highest in Estonia in Tartu County excluding the city of Tartu. In second place was Harju County without the capital Tallinn, Alis Tammur, leading statistician at Statistics Estonia, wrote in the blog. 

The statistician said this allows for the conclusion that the major cities attract people with their work opportunities as well as kindergartens and schools, whereas families choose to live at some distance from the city centers to have a better living environment for their children.

At the opposite end of the scale stands the city of Tallinn, where women lag far behind women in other counties and cities when it comes to the number of children they have on the average. Where the total birth rate in Estonia is close to 1.7 and as high as 2.3 children per woman in Tartu County, in Tallinn it was 1.4 children per woman last year. The other areas standing out for low birth rates are Tartu city and the counties of Hiiu and Jogeva.

Total fertility rate is the number of children who would be born per woman if she were to pass through the childbearing years bearing children according to a current schedule of age-specific fertility rates. 

It cannot be concluded from these examples, however, that Estonia's birth rate is low due to the gathering of people into bigger cities. While there are people everywhere who want to have children and have them, there simply is a smaller than average percentage of such people in the cities. This is important knowledge, which also could mean that the dwelling that a family can afford sets limits on the size of families, the statistician said.

The same trend is revealed when one looks at the number of children that women aged 40 and above have in Estonia. The number of births is low with such women in Tallinn, Tartu as well as East-Viru County, which ranks among the regions of Estonia with the highest shares of urban population. 

On the other hand, in the regions where the share of urban population is lower women of that age also have bigger numbers of children than average. 

The concentration of young mothers is highest in the suburban regions of Harju County and Tartu County. In addition to the aforementioned regions, women of ages 40-50 also have a higher than average number of children in rural areas, as well as in suburbia and small towns elsewhere in Estonia. 

Among women aged 60 and above, those living in rural areas far from the major cities are most likely to have a bigger number of children than their peers living in other areas.