Taipei, May 30 (CNA) A total of 211,399 babies were born in Taiwan in 2014, an increase of 8.4 percent from the previous year, according to statistics released Saturday by the Ministry of the Interior.

Of these births, 0.6 percent were born to a mother who is a foreign national, down 0.5 percentage points from the previous year.

The average age of the mothers of newborns was 31.5 years.

The average age was 30.6 among mothers from Southeast Asia, 30.9 among mothers who are Chinese, Hong Kong or Macau citizens, and 31.6 among mothers who are Taiwanese.

On average, mothers were giving birth for the first time at the age of 30.5 in 2014, up from 27.4 in 2004.

Of the first-time mothers, 57.3 percent were 30 or older.

(By Hsieh Chia-chen and Y.F. Low)
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