There were 4,879 live births in Iceland in 2021. Only three times in the history of Iceland have there been more children born in one year, in the years 2009-2010 and 1960. The number of boys was 2,579 and the number of girls 2,303, i.e. 1,119 boys for every 1,000 girls. This is an increase in the number of births from the previous year when 4,512 children were born.
The total fertility rate was 1.82 compared with 1.72 in 2020. The total fertility rate peaked during the late 1950s and early 1960s when the total fertility rate for the years 1960 and 1959 was 4.27 and 4.24, respectively.
Age-specific fertility rate has never been lower among mothers under twenty Age-specific fertility rate among mothers under twenty was 3.3 per 1,000 women in 2021. That is very low compared with the time period 1961-1965 when it peaked to 84 children per 1,000 women. The year 1870 is the only other year in which the birth rate of mothers under twenty went below four children per 1,000 women.
The age of mothers at the birth of a child has increased on average in recent decades. The mean age of primiparas in 2021 was 28.6 years compared with less than 22 years in the 1970s. Unlike last year, when only for the second time since 1932 the age-specific fertility rate was highest among women aged 30 to 34, the age-specific fertility rate was highest among women aged 25-29 years. Women in that age group had 121 children per 1,000 women in 2021.
Methods
Children born in Iceland but domiciled abroad are not included and children born outside Iceland but domiciled in Iceland are included.