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Helsinki saw a record-breaking number of babies last year
According to preliminary demographic statistics released by Statistics Finland, the birth rates in the Scandinavian country continued to grow in 2021. Last year, the preliminary total fertility rate (the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime) was 1.46, up from 1.37 in 2020 and 1.35 in 2019.
According to Eurostat’s 2019 survey regarding the birth rate per 1,000 inhabitants, Helsinki got placed on 140th place with the score 9,77. This survey was conducted on 500 cities throughout European Union.
The Finnish capital Helsinki, led by mayor Juhana Vartiainen, saw the highest number of babies born in 2021 in the last 45 years. Helsinki’s Deputy Mayor for Urban Environment Anni Sinnemäki revealed on her social media account that the record had been broken.
Sinnemäki stated: ‘’In Helsinki, 7,079 babies were born last year. This is actually something of a news story. It is a record. In the whole of the 2000s, Helsinki has never had so many babies born. When I looked back at the statistics, I got all the way back to 1976. The result is that never since 1976 have so many children been born in Helsinki as last year. Amazing!’’
‘’Probably the record is from even longer ago, but I couldn’t access the earlier figures now,’’ Sinnemäki added.
Sinnemäki further stated that Helsinki’s population increased by just over 1900 people last year. Because the immigration and emigration figures were almost equal, and there were significantly less deaths than births, the high number of births was largely responsible for the increase, she explained.
According to Sinnemäki, 2015 was the only other year during which more than 7,000 babies were born in Helsinki.
‘’As a city, it is our task to build a good and equal city for this new population, where we invest enough money in education from early childhood to primary school and where children are given the means to grow up as self-reliant citizens, empowered to realise their dreams and take responsibility for the world around them,’’ Sinnemäki concluded. (photo credit: Gigin Krishnan/Unsplash)
