A first child at age 28

The mean age at first childbearing for women in metropolitan France (mainland + Corsica) rose from 24 in the late 1960s to 28 in 2010. However, the increase has slowed in the past decade. Women are also older at the birth of their second or third child. The mean age at childbearing for all birth orders was 30 in 2010. The higher the woman's educational attainment, the later the age at which she has her first child. This partly explains why women become mothers at an older age in southern France and the Paris area, which register the highest percentages of women with greater educational attainment. This also helps to explain why immigrant women born in Turkey have their first child almost four years earlier than the average, and those born in Africa nine months earlier. In central and Eastern Europe, women give birth to their first child before age 27, i.e., earlier than in France. In Italy or Spain, by contrast, they have their first child after age 29.