According to the State Statistical Office data, in the Republic of Macedonia there were 23 752 births, of which 23 568 live births and 184 stillbirths. In 2012, compared to the previous year, the number of live births increased by 798 or 3.5%. The structure of live births by sex was dominated by boys with 51.9%, which means there were 108.1 boys per 100 girls.
According to the mothers’ age, most (35.1%) were live births to mothers aged 25-29, followed by live births to mothers aged 30-34 with 25.1%, then mothers aged 20-24 with 23.8%, etc. The mean age of mothers for all live births was 28.1 years, while the mean age of mothers at first birth was 26.3 years, a slight increase compared to the previous year. Children were most frequently born to mothers from the 1984 birth cohort.
In 2012, there were 26 live births registered to mothers aged under 15.
The number of illegitimate live births in 2012 was 2 742, which represents 11.6% of the total numbers of live births.
