Danish women bear more children than immigrants

In Denmark the natives’ fertility rate overrides for the first time in twenty years that of non-Western immigrant women. According to the latest report on population published by Statistics Denmark, Danish women in 2009 gave birth on average to 1.9 children against the 1.6 of their foreign counterpart. The number seems at odd with a statistical trend consolidated in many EU member states with a high concentration of immigrants. In the United Kingdom, for example, recent data showed that women born abroad feature fertility levels almost double those of local counterparts (2.50 against 1.84). The outlook is similar in Spain and Germany. The Danish case, however, could conceal the welding of two seemingly opposed phenomena. First, as explained Garbi Schmid of the Danish National Centre for Social Research, women with non-European background increasingly acquire western habits and social behaviors. Second, the “overtaking” of the natives could be attributed to second generation immigrants who have acquired the Danish citizenship.