"In 2018, as compared to the previous year, an increase of 1.1% was recorded in the number of live births, that is, 389 more children were born than in 2017, 51.6% were boys and 48.4% were girls," DZS said on its web site.
The number of deaths decreased by 1.4%, with 49.3% being men and 50.7% were women.
The natural increase rate in 2018 was negative at -3.9 or 15,761 fewer people as measured by the number of live births per 100 deaths.
The negative population growth decreased from the all time record of -4.1% in 2017 to -3.9% in 2018.
In 2018, there were 19,921 marriages. The marriage rate (marriages per 1,000 inhabitants) in 2018 was 4.9. At the same time, there were 6,125 divorces. There were fewer marriages and divorces in 2018 compared with 2017.