Portugal surpasses the barrier of 80 thousand births in 2022
Portugal again surpassed the barrier of 80,000 births in 2022, after the historic drop in birth rates in 2021, proven data based on the “heel prick test”, according to which 4,219 more babies were born last year compared to the previous one.
According to data from the National Neonatal Screening Program (PNRN), which cover almost all births in Portugal, 83,436 newborns were observed in 2022, an increase of 5.3% compared to 2021 (79,217), the year in which Portugal recorded the lowest number of births.
Before this minimum recorded in 2021, the lowest number had been verified in 2014, with 83,100 tests held in the country, and the highest in 2000 (118,577), according to data consulted by Lusa.
September was the month that recorded the highest number of “heel prick tests” last year (7,979), followed by August (7,862), November (7,544), October (7,147), March (7,097), May (6,915), June (6,904), December (6,744), July (6,763), January (6,482), February (6,049) and April (5,950), need the data advanced to the Lusa agency by the Instituto Nacional de Saúde Dr. Ricardo Jorge (INSA), coordinator of the screening program.
The data indicate that the Azores were the only region of the country that screened fewer newborns in 2022 compared to the previous year, totaling 1,997, six less than in 2021, and Portalegre equaled the number of births (584).
Lisbon was the city that screened the most newborns, totaling 24,842, 1,348 more compared to 2021, followed by Porto, with 15,255, 519 more compared to the previous year.
Braga registered 6,407 births in 2022, 574 more than in 2021, and Setúbal 6,373, 454 more, according to data from the “heel prick test”, carried out from the third day of life and which allows the detection of 27 diseases, allowing for early and healthier development of children.
Commenting on these data to Lusa, demographer Maria João Valente Rosa highlighted the fact that Portugal had once again surpassed the barrier of 80,000 births, “the psychological number” that one has in one’s head when one speaks of few births.
The university professor at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences at Universidade Nova de Lisboa said that these data and data from the National Institute of Statistics, which report to November 2022, also indicate that the natural balance (the difference between those who are born and those who are who die) will be “less low than in 2021”, the year in which more than 45,000 people died than were born. .
“In 2022, due to this increase in births, which is not very significant, and also due to the evolution of deaths, we can conclude that the natural balance will not be as negative as it was in 2021, but even so it will be very negative”, he underlined.
According to the demographer, what is being seen “is the result of something that happened in the very recent past, which led to the delay of the parenting project” at the time of the covid-19 pandemic due to fear, insecurity, instability, namely at work, among other reasons.
In his view, these births are partly the result of that decision that ended up coming true in 2021 with results in 2022.
“This delay in the project can also mean that, in many cases, a second and third birth does not happen even if people want it, because the woman’s fertile period is limited and the biological capacity to have children will watch from of 35”, he explained.