Brazil: Births Sink To Lowest Level In 45 Years

By Vitor Abdala 

Brazil registered over 2.5 million births in 2022, statistics bureau IBGE reported Wednesday (Mar. 27). The figure is 3.5 percent lower than the one recorded in 2021 and 10.8 percent below the average for the ten years before the COVID-19 pandemic, from 2010 to 2019. This is the fourth consecutive reduction in registered births, which have reached the lowest level since 1977—or in 45 years.

“The reduction in birth and fertility rates in the country, already signaled by the latest demographic censuses, coupled to some extent with the effects of the pandemic, are elements to be considered in Brazil’s recent change in births,” says IBGE researcher Klívia Brayner.

Declines from 2021 to 2022 were observed across all regions of the country, chiefly in the Northeast (-6.7%) and the North (-3.8%). Among the 27 Brazilian states, the sharpest reductions occurred in Paraíba (-9.9%), Maranhão (-8.5%), Sergipe (-7.8%), and Rio Grande do Norte (-7.3%).

The only states with an increase in births in the period were Santa Catarina (2.0%) and Mato Grosso (1.8%).

The age of mothers

The survey also found there was a drop in the number of mothers aged up to 29 among the total amount of births between 2000 and 2022. On the other hand, mothers aged 30 and over increased in number.

Mothers under the age of 20 accounted for 21.6 percent of births in 2000, rising to 18.5 percent in 2010 and 12.1 percent in 2022. The same trend was seen with mothers aged between 20 and 29, who went from 54.5 percent in 2000, to 53.1 percent in 2010 and 49.2 percent in 2022.

The proportion of mothers aged 30 to 39, in turn, rose from 22 percent in 2000 to 26.1 percent in 2010, and to 34.5 percent in 2022. Mothers aged 40 or over accounted for two percent of births in 2000, rising to 2.3 percent in 2010 and 4.2 percent in 2022.

The total number of unregistered births in Brazil in 2021 was estimated at 55,511—or 2.1 percent of the total.