Data from IRN, the notaries and registrars’ institute, shows there were 89,162 babies born in Portugal last year – 4,000 more than the year before.
Pre-2000, the country hummed along with around 120,000 babies being born per year. This started sliding dangerously as the new century progressed – leading to real fears for the sustainability of the pension system.
The arrival of ‘foreigners en-masse’ has helped turn the situation around admirably – the principal nationalities changing the picture being Brazilians (9,211 babies born last year); Angolans (2,168); Cape Verdeans (1,856); Indians (1,094) and Guineans (1,080).
Expresso admits that if it weren’t for these foreign residents, the ‘increase in the number of babies this year’ would have been much lower (and the consequences for the social security system much more dire). Portuguese mothers were responsible for just 658 of the ‘additional’ babies born this year; foreign nationals for the 3,382 that made it a ‘bumper baby season’.
Source: Expresso
