The publication "Birth Statistics" by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) indicates that the increase recorded in 2025 contradicts the drop observed between 2023 and 2024 and resumes the growth trend seen since 2022.

More foreign mothers

The data highlight an increase in the proportion of births to mothers of foreign nationality, from 26.3% in 2024 to 28.8% in 2025, with these mothers mainly residing in municipalities in the Algarve and Greater Lisbon.

“The group of foreign nationalities most represented remained the same as the previous year, reinforcing their weight in the total number of births, with Brazil standing out (10.5% of total births in 2025),” it emphasises.

Of the total births that occurred in 2025, 99.7% (86,869) were from mothers residing in the country and 0.3% (261) from mothers residing abroad, proportions similar to those of the last two years.

Increase in all regions

According to the data, the number of births increased across all regions of the country between 2024 and 2025, except in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, where it decreased by 3.3%.

In the other regions, the INE highlights an increase of almost 6% in the North region, as well as increases of about 5% in the Central region, on the Setúbal Peninsula, and in the Autonomous Region of the Azores.

“Combining the number of births and the relative annual variation in births in each region, it can be concluded that the North region contributed almost half (1.8 percentage points) to the 3.7% increase in the number of births in Portugal in 2025,” it highlights.

The largest number of births to women residing in the country occurred in the North region (29.8%) and Greater Lisbon (25.6%), followed by the Central region (13.7%), Setúbal Peninsula (9.7%) and the West and Tagus Valley region (7.7%).

The data also reveal that over the last 20 years, the age of mothers has increased: between 2003 and 2025, the proportion of births to mothers aged 35 or older rose from 17.2% to 32.0%.

Types of childbirth

In 2025, the proportion of twin births (two or more births) increased with maternal age: 40.4% of twin births involved mothers aged 35 or older, while the proportion of single births in the same age group was 31.9%.

For 92.5% of single births, the mothers had a gestation period longer than 37 weeks, while in twin births, this proportion decreased to 37.9%. In this type of birth, the gestation lasted between 32 and 36 weeks in 52.6% of cases.

According to the data, the proportion of dystocic births (with instrumental interventions such as forceps and vacuum extraction, or by cesarean section) performed in hospitals has increased, representing more than half of births since 2009.

“In particular, the number of cesarean sections increased, between 1999 and 2024, from 27.1% to 38.6% of births performed in hospitals,” highlights IBGE.

Place of births

Last year, 98.5% of births occurred in a hospital setting, 1% in the mother's home, and the remaining 0.5% in other locations.

Almost all births (99%) were attended by a doctor (72.3%) or an obstetric nurse (26.7%).