A little over a month ago we advanced: only 105,141 babies were born in the first four months of this year in our country, 6% less than in the same period last year. They were the latest data provided by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which confirms the downward trend for five years and that has accelerated due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In fact, last December, the INE recorded the lowest birth rate in the last 80 years.
And it is that the demographic evolution of Spain is increasingly worrying, reaching “levels not seen for several centuries” , as the CEU Demographic Observatory has warned.
It is one of the conclusions of the reports made by this Observatory, which wants to give visibility to demographic evolution, with the search for proposals and social and legal changes that facilitate an increase in the fertility rate. But there is more.
A serious problem of lack of births and social aging
According to studies published by the Observatory, such as the report Provisional Balance of the demographic disorder of Spain in 2020, last year a new historical minimum of several centuries was reached in the number of births in Spain, which was later corroborated with the last demographic data from the INE.
The fertility rate in 2020 was below 1.20 children per woman , while in 1858 (the first year in which there are modern birth statistics in Spain) it is estimated that about 546 thousand children were born, when the population of our The country had only about 15.5 million inhabitants.
Current figures indicate that births touched 340,000 in 2020 for a population of 47.35 million people. All forecasts point to a decrease in the average number of people per household.
And although according to the Observatory the problem is also European, Spain today is placed in terms of its “demographic deficit” in the worst places in the EU.
Causes: lack of job expectations
They explain from this demographic Observatory that the late incorporation of young people into the job market does not help to stop the fall in the birth rate. The report ‘Demography and the labor market in Spain’ includes a notable growth in the aging of the Spanish workforce, mainly due to the fall in births experienced since 1976, in parallel with the general aging of the Spanish population.
In Spain, the delay in the age of entry into the labor market for young people has increased, which also has very high unemployment rates. In October 2020, the unemployment rate among young people under 25 (of both sexes) was 40.4%, the highest in the euro zone (18.7%) and in the EU at 27 (17, 5%), and much higher than in Germany (6%) or Japan (5%).
Solution: pro-natality and pro-family cultural change
From the Observatory they point out that the solution is to “promote a great pro-natality and pro-family cultural change of the majority social values .” They point out that:
“If the vast majority of people do not want to have more children, form stable families to conceive and raise them, and all this at an earlier age than in the last two or three decades, no matter how much economic incentives are given to the birth rate – in in any case desirable, and currently very insufficient in Spain – little will be achieved “.
It underlines the need to undertake policies that improve the situation of young people, both “in the labor market, reducing precariousness and contributing to the rise in wages” and “in access to housing.”
These touches of attention have coincided with the announcement of some conciliation measures proposed by the Minister of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, Ione Belarra, and that would be included in the next law on family diversity and support for families, such as the extension of the permit of maternity and paternity to six months and the universal benefit for upbringing that does not depend on the income of the families.
This Observatory, attached to the School of Humanities and Communication Sciences of CEU San Pablo, is led by the politician, economist and demographer Joaquín Leguina Herrán, in coordination with the engineer, consultant and demographic analyst Alejandro Macarrón Larumbe. On this page you can consult the reports that you have made in the last year.
Photos | iStock
In Babies and More | Pediatricians request a two-year maternity leave to protect breastfeeding, A single mother will enjoy 24 weeks of leave for the birth of her child by adding the maternity and paternity benefit
