Thursday, March 28

2021 was the year with the fewest births in history in Spain

The downward trend continues. The year 2021 was the one in which fewer births were registered in Spain since records exist. The second year of the pandemic, 337,380 babies were born in this country, 1.15% less than in 2020. In the last decade, the birth rate has fallen by about 28%, while the population ages. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics, published this Wednesday, the balance of deaths and births was negative. Specifically, in 113,364 people.




According to the INE itself, a more pronounced drop in births is observed in the first months of 2021. The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic that swept the world are also noticeable in this section. In fact, this body notes a “decrease in pregnancies produced during confinement”, which began in March 2020, just nine months before the new year.

Births drop, but deaths do so in a higher percentage. In 2021, 450,744 people died, 8.71% less than in the previous year. Again with the health crisis in the background, in 2020 an unprecedented excess of mortality had been registered and it had been the year with the most deaths since there are records.

Regarding the age of the mothers, 69% of the women who had a baby in 2021 were over 30 years old. There were, in total, 327,877. Above were the 32,832 mothers between 40 and 44 years of age; the 3,094 who saw a son or a daughter between 45 and 49; and the 222 children born to mothers over 50 years of age. Below that, 80,697 women had a baby in their twenties; there were 5,470 births to mothers between the ages of 15 and 19; and 62 under 15.


As can be seen in the following graph, until 1991, less than 40% of mothers were over 30 years of age. In 2021 they are already more than 74%. A figure that confirms that women take longer to have children. In fact, that 70% threshold was passed a decade ago. In addition, the age group from 25 to 29 years has gone from being the one that registered the highest birth data in 1975, to the third in 2021 and that of 20 to 24 years, from the second to the fourth.




In 2008, birth figures were reached that had not been seen for more than a quarter of a century. Since then, the number of births has been progressively decreasing and in 2021 there were already 35% less than in that historical peak in this millennium.

The number of children per woman is around 1.2%, a value similar to that registered in 2020. In addition, according to INE data, births to Spanish mothers increased by 0.36% compared to that year and decreased those of a foreign mother by 6.34%. There are 265,084 and 72,296 births respectively.




Another trend that is consolidating is that of the marital status of mothers. There are still more married (50.8%) than single (49.2), but the history points to an imminent turnaround. Forty years ago, in 1981, the difference was more than 95 points. Although the increase has been constant since 1975, the number of births to unmarried mothers has skyrocketed since 1995 and, although it has remained more or less stable, with a slightly pumped curve since 2008, babies born to married women have decreased markedly since that time. year.



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