During the first four months of the year, 14,647 children were born in Finland, 980 fewer than for the corresponding period in 2018, according to preliminary data released by Statistics Finland on Tuesday.
This figure is in keeping with the overall trend of a declining birthrate during the past few years.
For January to April, the number of births was 3,825 lower than the number of deaths, which totaled 18,472 -- this is 1,287 fewer than for the same time period one year earlier.
Overall population growth
On the other hand, Finland's population increased by 833 people during the January-April period, says the number crunching agency, bringing Finland's total population to 5,518,752 at the end of April.
Statistics Finland reports that the reason for population growth was migration gain from abroad, since immigration exceeded emigration by 5,050.
According to the preliminary data, 9,189 persons immigrated to Finland from abroad and 4,139 persons emigrated from Finland.
The number of immigrants was 76 lower and the number of emigrants 792 lower than for the corresponding period during the previous year. In total, 2,094 of the immigrants and 2,741 of the emigrants were Finnish citizens during the first four months of the year.