The average age of first time mothers in Portugal had increased to over 30 years, according to the National Statistics Institute which has registered a steady rise in average age since 1986 when the figure was 23.9 years.
The data comes out in time for Mother's Day on Sunday, May 7th.
Last year, 87,126 babies were born in Portugal, the majority were boys (44,789) with 42,337 girls.
The Lisbon area had the highest number of births (29,039) and Madeira had the lowest at 1,058.
In 2016, the majority of women were mothers between the ages of 20 and 34 (57,507 births), followed by 35 and above (27,411 babies) and under 20 years (2,208 babies).
In 2015, Portugal had the lowest fertility rate in the European Union at just 1.30.
The most recent population censuses in 2011 showed 2.01 million mothers, of whom 416,300 lived alone with their children, half of whom were employed.
Figures released by Eurostat in March showed that in the last 15 years the number of children born in Portugal fell from 112,774 to 85,500.
With this 24% drop, Portugal is behind the Netherlands (down 15.8%), Denmark (down 11.1%), and Romania (down 10.4%).
Greece, where the deep recession and 25% unemployment rate are sound reasons for holding back, has seen a drop of 10.2% - less than half that of Portugal.
By 2015, every Portuguese woman of childbearing age had an average of 1.31 children, well below the European Union average of 1.58 and a drop compared to 2001, where the fertility rate in Portugal was 1.45.
According to Eurostat, the fertility rate needed is 2.1 children per woman to replace the population, taking into account net migration.
