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By Liam Verster

Births Per Quarter

Birth rates declining in Vernon, Okanagan

Jul 16, 2024 | 10:40 AM

Vernon and most of the Okanagan is seeing fewer births on an annual basis.

The B.C. Vital Statistics Agency (Vital Stats) reported 89 births in the Vernon Centre/Coldstream local health area between April 1 and June 30 of 2024. Those included 36 births in April, 39 in May and 14 in June.

Though up from the 76 births recorded in the first three months of the year, the figures from the second quarter of 2023 when there were 110 local births (30 in April, 39 in May and 41 in June).

Most of the Okanagan also saw birth figures decline in the second quarter, with the exception of Downtown Kelowna, Salmon Arm, and the Okanagan Mission health areas.

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The decline in births was not just contained to the Okanagan, as the provincial figures also declined on a quarterly basis.

Vital Stats reported 3,705 births across the province in April, 3,765 births in May and just 1,872 births in June for a total of 8,342 births in British Columbia during the second quarter of 2024.

That figure was down from the first quarter of the year when there were 10,399 births in B.C.

It was also down compared to the second quarter of 2023’s total of 10,285 births.

Vital Stats noted its figures are based on live births only and that stillbirths are excluded, and that the 2024 figures are an interim total and still subject to review.