Dutch women are having their first baby at an average age of 30 and a bit, almost a year up on the European average, figures from statistics agency CBS and Eurostat have shown.

They are also having fewer children as young women in particular postpone motherhood, the figures show.

The average age at which women have their first child has gone up in all countries of the European Union in the last 10 years. In 2013, women in the EU were on average 28.8 years old when they had their first child. By 2022 they were almost a year older.

With an average age of 30.3, Dutch first-time mothers are not the oldest in the EU. Italy tops the list with 31.7 followed by Spain with 31.6 and Ireland with 31.5. Bulgarian women had their first child at an average of 26.6, making them the youngest first-time mothers.

Dutch women are also having fewer children. In 2022, Dutch women had an average of 1.49 babies, down from 1.76 in 2011, and virtually in line with the European average.

In general Eastern European women tend to have the most children, while the lowest figures are concentrated in southern European countries. The average number of children per woman has gone down in over half of EU countries since 2011.

A total of 3.8 million children were born in 2022 in the EU, fewer than the preceding year when 4.1 million babies were born. The number of births has been falling since 2008, including in the Netherlands where 5% fewer live births have been recorded since then.