Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) – In Hesse, more babies were born last year than since 1997. According to a statement on Tuesday, the State Statistical Office recorded 61,550 children born alive. That was 3.6 percent more than in 2020. The average of the pre-Corona years 2016 to 2019 was therefore exceeded by 1.4 percent. More children than in 2021 were last born in 1997, when there were 63,120.
Hesse is thus following the national trend, as preliminary figures from the Federal Statistical Office show. Population researchers see this as an effect of the socio-political corona instruments – because in other countries the number of births has fallen massively in individual months, probably because of potential parents’ fears for the future. The amount of time that couples spent together during the lockdown could also have contributed to the increase in the number of births.
In Hesse, most babies in 2021 were born in August (5600 live births), followed by September (5540) and July (5530). 84.3 percent of the children born in the entire year have German citizenship, according to the state office, their share remained almost the same.