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POPULATION

Swiss share of births out of wedlock doubles

The number of children born out of wedlock in Switzerland has virtually doubled in the past decade, but the rate remains well below the European average, a report released on Thursday shows.

Swiss share of births out of wedlock doubles
Photo: Waltraud Grubitzsch/AFP/Getty Images

The share of births to unmarried women amounted to 20.2 percent of the 82,200 recorded in the country in 2012, the federal statistics office said in a report.

That is almost twice the rate in 2002 and marked the first time the 20 percent level had been surpassed, the report said.

By comparison, the rate of births to unmarried parents averaged 39.5 percent across Europe in 2011, the statistics office noted.

Switzerland’s overall birth rate rose 1.7 percent in 2012 from the previous year.

The statistics report highlights that women in Switzerland are continuing to have children for the first time at an older age, while those under the age of 30 are having fewer offspring.

The percentage of women over the age of 35 giving birth to newborns jumped to 30 percent last year from 22 percent in 2001.

Women are also waiting longer to have children, with the average age for giving birth for the first time rising to 30.4 years in 2012 from 28.9 years in 2001.

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POPULATION

Denmark expects twice as many people over 80 years old in 2050

More than twice as many people in Denmark will be over 80 years old in 2050 compared to the number of senior citizens in the country today.

Denmark expects twice as many people over 80 years old in 2050
By 2050, a much larger proportion of Denmark's population will be over 80 years old. File photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

A new population projection from national agency Statistics Denmark predicts 431,000 people of the age of 80 in Denmark in 2030.

That will increase to 617,000 by 2050, around 10 percent of the population.

Today, Denmark has around 282,000 over-80s in its population, which is around 5 percent of the population.

A large increase in the number of elderly persons is expected to present Denmark’s social welfare system with economic challenges, with larger numbers likely to need care and practical help.

In its report, Statistics Denmark writes that the “greatest (population) growth going forward is expected to take place amongst the oldest age groups”.

Other age groups are not expected to greatly change their proportion of the population during the period covered by the projection, the agency writes.

The overall population is expected to grow by 0.4 percent by 2028. After that, growth will plateau, giving a growth of 0.12 percent in 2050. It is then forecast to increase again, reaching 0.2 percent in 2060.

Major factors affecting the population size – birth rates, death rates and immigration – are all predicted to vary at different times throughout the period.

But Statistics Denmark writes that it expects a deficit in the number of births between 2044 and 2053.

The 2021 projection does not take into account the potential long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the population. That is because “no sufficient basis of knowledge and experience is yet available,” the statistics bureau writes.

However, the agency noted that the biggest impact of the pandemic on population size in 2020 was its restrictive effect on immigration and emigration.

READ ALSO: Denmark’s immigration and emigration is mostly to and from Western countries

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