The decline in the birth rate in Spain continues without finding ground. The latest birth data provided by the INE indicate that between January and July of this year, 183,083 babies have been born, the lowest number in the last eight years. They represent 5,432 fewer births than in the same period last year and almost 52,000 fewer than in 2016. That is, a decline of 2.88% and 22% respectively.
This despite the fact that, as INE sources point out, July was the month in which the most creatures came into the world since last November. A total of 27,612. Despite this, it has been 21 months since there have been more than 30,000 births in a month in Spain.
The drop in birth rates is generalized and affects all autonomous communities. Those with the least decline in births this year are Valencia (-0.28%), Galicia (-1.12%) and Madrid (-1.32%). The most, Ceuta and Melilla (-10% and -15.84%), Asturias (-9.51%) and Navarra (-7%). In Catalonia in the first seven months of this year, 31,223 babies have been born, practically 4% less than in the same period of 2022.
The INE figures also allow us to analyze the evolution of births depending on the age of the mother, and it is surprising that the only age group that has not had fewer children than a year ago is that of women in their twenties. In fact, in the group between 20 and 24 years old, births have grown by 2% compared to the same period in 2022, although they are still fewer than those registered in that age group before the covid pandemic.
In fact, if 2019, pre-pandemic, is taken as a reference, what is observed is an increase in late motherhood. Births to mothers between 45 and 49 years old have increased by 17%, and those of those over 50 have increased by 53%, although the latter are still a very minority, 156 between January and July.
Aside from the statistical data, the demographic analyzes make it clear that there will hardly be a recovery in the birth rate in the coming years because the number of births is conditioned by the fertile population (that is, the number of candidates to become mothers) and the rate fertility (the decision of these women to have children, and both indicators are going down.
It is decisive that the women born in the mid-eighties are in their thirties – the age in which the highest number of births are concentrated – which was a period of low fertility and low birth rate because a strong economic crisis was combined with changes social benefits derived from the decriminalization of contraceptives and abortion and the widespread incorporation of women into the labor market.
For this reason, demographers point out that we will have to wait until women born between 2000 and 2008 reach their thirties or forties (the last period in which more babies were born) to see if birth rates rebound somewhat.
