Moroccan Mothers Lead the Charge in Births Among Foreign Nationals
In a notable demographic development, Moroccan women emerged as the largest group of foreign-born mothers in Spain's Basque Country in 2025, accounting for an impressive 692 births out of a total of 3,569 babies born to non-Spanish nationals. This data, released by Eustat, the Basque statistical office, reveals that Moroccan mothers surpassed other nationalities, including Colombians (454), Algerians (230), Pakistanis (208), Nicaraguans (196), Paraguayans (189), Romanians (182), Peruvians (142), and Venezuelans (111). These statistics reflect a significant trend within the larger framework of Spain's demographic landscape, where Moroccans are recognized as the largest foreign community, with nearly 969,000 individuals holding Moroccan nationality and over 1.16 million Moroccan-born residents in the country as of January 2025, as reported by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
The Moroccan demographic in Spain has seen substantial growth, with an increase of over 48,000 individuals in 2024 alone, solidifying their position as a prominent community across various autonomous regions. Within Euskadi, the Moroccan population has long been one of the most established among foreign demographics. Notably, foreign mothers constituted 26.7% of all women who gave birth in the Basque Country last year, with more than a third (35.6%) of all mothers born outside of Spain.
Significant Trends in Birth Rates and Maternal Age
The birth data for 2025 marks a pivotal demographic shift for the Basque Country, with a total of 13,344 births recorded, reflecting a 3.1% increase from the previous year and marking the first rise since 2014. This uptick was evident across all three Basque provinces: Bizkaia recorded 6,627 births, Gipuzkoa had 4,554, and Álava saw 2,163 births. Interestingly, foreign mothers tended to be significantly younger than their Spanish counterparts; 42.5% of non-Spanish mothers gave birth before the age of 30, in stark contrast to just 13.3% of Spanish mothers. The average age for foreign first-time mothers was 28.7 years, nearly five years younger than the 33.5-year average for Spanish women.
The overall mean maternal age across all nationalities reached 33.4 years, one of the highest in Europe, with the 35 to 39 age bracket accounting for 34% of all births. Moreover, 11.2% of births occurred to mothers aged 40 and older. Another notable trend is that slightly over half of all births (50.4%) took place outside of marriage, a significant rise from 41.6% a decade ago. First-born children represented 51% of the total births, with public hospitals managing the majority of deliveries at 94%, while private facilities accounted for 5.3% and home births a mere 0.7%. The region also recorded a total of 203 twin deliveries, three sets of triplets, and 709 premature births.
As reported by moroccoworldnews.com.
