Almost 500 babies were born in the Akureyri Hospital in North Iceland last year. RÚV reports that this is an increase of nearly 26% from the year before. The announcement was made at the hospital’s annual meeting this week. There was a general increase in patient numbers: Akureyri Hospital treated 13,500 patients in 2021, up 22% from the year before.
In 2021, there were precisely 491 babies born in 488 births (three sets of twins) at Akureyri Hospital. In 2020, by contrast, there were 397 babies born in 392 births (that year, five sets of twins). This makes 2021 Akureyri’s second-most fruitful year on the books; the current record for most babies born in Iceland’s ‘capital of the north’ in one year is 515 babies in 2010.
Births were up in the actual capital as well, but not nearly as much. In 2021, 3,466 babies were born at Reykjavík’s National and University Hospital, which is just 5% over the previous year’s rate.
Akureyri Hospital CEO Hildigunnur Svavarsdóttir says the reason for the jump in birth numbers is difficult to determine with any certainty, although she readily concedes to the winking supposition that “people got bored during COVID.”
“That’s one explanation for sure, and a lot of people are giving each other knowing smiles,” she remarked. “But I have no explanation for it—I just think it’s a really joyous thing. We could do with more of us up here.”
