Spain needs 719 more births per day
The population pyramid in Spain is being reversed and soon more deaths will happen than births in our country. This is demonstrated by the report prepared by the Institute for Family Policy, IPF, which has attempted to measure the evolution of the situation of families in Spain, making an interesting account of marriages, births and deaths, as well as ruptures of family nuclei, amount of young people that there are in Spain and more data of which now we will speak to you.
Spain needs 719 more births per day
Perhaps the most worrisome data of the IPF are given in this section. This organism aims at the current birth rate in Spain does not guarantee the generational change since for this to occur the birth rate must be at least 2.1 and within our borders is 1.32. This places our country in the tail of Europe in terms of birth rate since the IPF indicates that we occupy the penultimate place along with Portugal.
If we compare the data of those born in 1980 with those of 2014, we can see that this figure has decreased by just over 143,000 births. In fact, thanks to the immigrant population this decrease has not been so violent since foreign mothers gave birth to more than 76,000 babies during 2014.
These data are worrisome in that the generational change is jeopardized, that is to say that there are at least two births per couple so that the population does not descend. As the IPF points out for this to occur in Spain there would have to be 260,000 more births at the end of the year, which means that today there should be 719 more births than there are today. And it is that within our borders women give birth to 1,171 children a day.
In relation to these data, there has been an increase in children born out of wedlock. According to the IPF numbers of the 1,171 daily births that occur in Spain, 498 occur outside a marriage union. That is, four out of every ten children are extramarital. Highlights Canaria, s where children born out of wedlock outnumber births between married couples since the latter only account for four out of ten cases of birth.
Marriages in Spain
According to the information provided by the IPF in Spain 445 marriages are celebrated, of which 295 are civilians and 150 religious rites. The numbers in this report also show that 75 weddings are celebrated daily among people of different nationalities. This study indicates a collapse of the nuptiality rate, number of marriages per 1,000 inhabitants, that in 1990 it stood at 5.68 and in 2014 it has dropped to 3.45. That is, during 2014, 58,000 marriages were celebrated less than in 1990.
This report indicates that while the number of marriages decreases, couples have grown during the last years. The data of this study suggest that in Spain there are already 1.6 million family nuclei of this style, that is, one in every seven households in our country is made up of a couple with or without children. The rise of this type of family is better appreciated if it is appreciated with the data of the first decade of the S. XXI since in 2001 they accounted for just over 563,000 while as we said in 2014 this number grew to 1.6 millions.
Family reconciliation, a pending subject
The drop in the birth rate is understood if we appreciate the situation of labor conciliation that today in Spain is little less than a utopia. It is true that there are good intentions on the part of the Government and of the companies, but these, rarely translate into real policies of rationalization of the schedules. This does not contribute to support motherhood and this decision is postponed more and more and Spanish women delay the first pregnancy to 31.8 years.
And in the new times it is becoming increasingly difficult to spend these wonderful moments with our children, which ends up becoming an impossible mission. The schedules and the few facilities that are given from the companies make that the conciliation is a chimera in the majority of the occasions. A report by the Más Familia foundation reveals that approximately 61% of companies do not include a conciliation policy.
Damián Montero
