Birth rates in Spain fall for fifth consecutive year and average first-time mum is aged 32-and-three-quarters
Friday, June 27, 2014 @ 6:41 PM
BIRTH rates have fallen in Spain for the fifth year running as a result of the financial crisis, leading to an ageing population and fears that there will not be enough workers in the next generation to support the current one when they retire.
With just 425,390 babies born in Spain in 2013 – an 18-per-cent fall on figures for the year 2008 and a drop of 6.4 per cent on 2012, the average woman has 1.26 children, close to that of 2002 – when the average was 1.25 – and a significant reduction over the previous year when the birth rate stood at 1.32 children per mother.
For foreign women living in Spain, the average has gone down from 1.56 to 1.5 children per mother, whilst for Spanish women, it has dropped in the space of a year from 1.27 to 1.21.
The greatest fall in birth numbers have been seen in the northern regions of Asturias (12.5 per cent), Navarra (9.9 per cent) and La Rioja (8.9 per cent).
According to the High Council of Scientific Investigation (CSIC), having children a century ago was a very different story to how it is today.
In the early 1900s, life expectancy was three times lower and the cost of raising a child now takes up a much larger percentage of parents' income.
“People did not live as long 100 or so years ago, so there was more of an urgent need to get married and have lots of children as early as possible,” explains Julio Pérez, a demographic expert from the CSIC.
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