Spain lives a brutal birth crisis. And that is causing mothers above 40 years to grow more than ever

In Spain they are born every time Less children. And increasingly. The balance That the INE has just published with the first global photography of birth and mortality in Spain throughout 2024 leaves some surprises but above all confirm the trends that have been marking the demography of the country for years. And one of the clearest is the gradual delay of motherhood: more and more women have children turned 40 or even with 50.

And there is a fact that clearly reflects it: 10.4%.

A (small) joy. They are still provisional data, so the photo that leaves The last report of the INE could vary over the coming months. However, waiting for the definitive balance, Spain seems to have closed 2024 with a (small) demographic joy. His birthday has rebounded. In a shy and that has not served to compensate for the number of deaths and thus avoid a vegetative balance in Red numbersbut at least allows you to cut the negative trend of the last decade.

A percentage: 0.4%. That is the birth increase registered by the INE in 2024: 0.4%which translates into 1,378 births rather than in 2023. Throughout the last year they came to the world in Spain 322,034 babies, almost 1,400 more than during the previous 12 months. The data leaves a positive reading and another that is not so much, depending on how much we amounts to the temporal focus when analyzing it. The first is that it represents the first birth rise since 2014, when the balance touched the 427,600 babies.

However, despite that climb, the Spanish demographic engine does not have today Nothing to do With the years of the Baby Boomthere for 50, 60 and mid -70s, when they were born in the country between 650,000 and 660,000 babies a year. The INE reflects for example that in 1975 they were noted almost 669,400so since then the collapse has been 52%.

And a figure: 33,570. The balance of the INE helps to understand another of the key factors of Spanish demography: maternity. And when analyzing one of Trends clearer is its progressive delay. More and more Spanish have children with 40 or more years, to the point that in 2024 that profile was behind 33,570 births. What does that mean? That one out of ten Babies born in Spain (10.4%) already do it from women who exceed thirty. In 2014 that percentage was significantly lower, of 7.2%.

Looking back. In 2014 the INE scored 30,946 births of women of 40 or more years, so that the increase has been 8.5% in a decade. During the same period the number of babies born of mothers under 25 years fell 21.9% and the births of women between 25 and 39, the one with the greatest weight, retreated 27.9%. If you look further back the trend is even clearer.

In 2000 the INE counted in Spain 397,632 birthsof which 10,163 were related to women who had already arrived or exceeded quarantine. That is, at that time its weight was only 2.5% of the total and the number of lighting has shot 230% since then. In 2004, women of 40 or more years starred 15,017 birthswith what your number has doubled.

The other indicator: Middle Ages. There is another clue that helps to understand how they are quickly changing motherhood in Spain: its Middle Agesan indicator that has practically not stopped growing over the last decades. If in 1976 it was located in 28.51in 2000 it was already 30.72, in 2010 it climbed at 31.2 and in 2023 it was 32.6 years. That is, the average has increased more than four years since the 70s. In the EU, a gradual increase of the age at which women have their first offspring.

What are the causes? The big question. The increase in what the INE calls “Middle Ages to Maternity” And the number of women who give birth to the 40 years coincides with other phenomena that directly affect women, as the Professor of Human Geography Rafael Puyol recently pointed out in An article dedicated to the Spanish demographic crisis. The expert specified in particular the educational revolution and the incorporation and women into the labor market, in addition to cultural changes and the family model.

Images | Jessica Pankratz (Flickr) and INE

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