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Birth crisis: Seven in 10 women aged 35 do not have children
23/06/2018
SEVEN in 10 women in Spain aged 35 do not have children, says the Spanish Fertility Society (SEF), warning that the government needs to put 'urgent measures' in place to encourage motherhood and increase the birth rate.
The current average age for a first-time mother is 32.1 years – up from 32 a year ago – and one in five women who have their first baby is aged over 40.
Whilst this means fertility clinics across the country are busy, it also means many women will never have children at all since, by the time they are in stable work with a home of their own, a long-term partner and savings behind them, they will be leaving it too late. Some opt to freeze their eggs which, at an average price of €2,000, is much lower than in the UK and elsewhere in northern Europe, but still out of the reach of women on a typical salary.
Last year, the previous PP-led government agreed a €100-a-month benefit for anyone with children, but this comes in the form of a tax deduction which is not refunded until they file their end-of-year declaration. Otherwise, no help exists for parents until they have at least three children, or two children if one is disabled or they are single mothers or fathers.
According to the SEF, quoting figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the current birth rate is at its lowest for 19 years. Over 2017, a total of 391,930 babies were born – a fall of 4.5% on the previous year, or 18,653 fewer – the lowest figure since the year 1999. And at 8.4 births per 1,000 inhabitants, the natality rate is at its lowest in living memory.
Spain has the second-highest life expectancy in Europe after Switzerland, at 83.1 years, with women living on average to 85.7 years and men to 80.4.
This does not mean it is unusual to live beyond early or mid-80s, since life expectancy is affected by those who die long before old age, through illnesses or accidents in childhood, youth or young adulthood, skewing the average – in fact, if traffic accident and suicide rates fell and cancer survival rates improved, it is likely Spanish life expectancy would soar.
Already, the country has an above-averagely high number of residents aged 100 or more, and at least one person aged 110 or over in almost every region.
Effectively, anyone who reached current State retirement age, 65, last year can expect to live another 19.1 years if they are male or 23 years more if they are female.
But the low birth rate means future generations of workers will be too reduced to continue to fund retirement pensions, and essential public service providers such as emergency workers, doctors, nurses and teachers are likely to be thin on the ground.
Last year's mortality rate went up by 3.2%, with 13,556 more deaths in 2017 than in 2016, and the difference between births and deaths – not including emigration or immigration - meant a population reduction of 31,245.
The INE says the number of women of fertile age – defined as 15 to 49 – reduced last year to 10.57, or fewer than a quarter of the population, largely due to a previous birth-rate crisis in the 1980s which means today's adults aged between 28 and 38 are likely to have been only children and are fewer in number than other age groups. And those who do have children nowadays are unlikely to have more than one, even if they want to have more.
In 2016, the average woman of fertile age had 1.34 children – meaning the rate per couple would be about half of this – and by the end of 2017, this had fallen to 1.31.
Of the total number of babies born, 75,564 had foreign mothers, making up 19.3% of the total, compared with 18.5% in 2016.
And while infant mortality has fallen in the last five years – from three per 1,000 to 2.75 – this still means 143 newborns did not survive the year. If the birth rate is 8.4 per 1,000 inhabitants, this translates as all the babies born in a population of 17,000, or that of a small town, would not have survived to their first birthdays.
Whilst still a low figure even for a first-world nation, the impact of the infant mortality rate on the population as a whole highlights the extent to which birth numbers are in crisis.
Spain's new socialist government announced plans within its first week in office to set up a commission for tackling child poverty in the country, something which one in three youngsters are at risk of.
Charities such as Save the Children and UNICEF have championed the move and called for the commission to agree to at least €100 per month per child to be given to families. Save the Children says 1.6 million kids in Spain are living in extreme first-world poverty, generally considered to be a situation where their parents cannot afford electricity and water and where children have to miss meals because the family does not have the money to pay for them.
The commission needs to focus on single parents in particular, since they are 'in the most fragile situation', the global charities say, and want to see these treated as a 'large family' for support purposes irrespective of how many kids they have, not just those with two or more.
“At the moment, the maximum benefit per dependent child is €24.50, and anyone who has children knows this goes nowhere towards covering their needs,” say UNICEF and Save the Children.
“For this reason, we want to see families given €100 per month per child, especially if they are in a situation of extreme poverty.”
UNICEF points out that although the average number of children who leave school at 16 with no qualifications, this rises to 50% among pupils living in poverty.
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SEVEN in 10 women in Spain aged 35 do not have children, says the Spanish Fertility Society (SEF), warning that the government needs to put 'urgent measures' in place to encourage motherhood and increase the birth rate.
The current average age for a first-time mother is 32.1 years – up from 32 a year ago – and one in five women who have their first baby is aged over 40.
Whilst this means fertility clinics across the country are busy, it also means many women will never have children at all since, by the time they are in stable work with a home of their own, a long-term partner and savings behind them, they will be leaving it too late. Some opt to freeze their eggs which, at an average price of €2,000, is much lower than in the UK and elsewhere in northern Europe, but still out of the reach of women on a typical salary.
Last year, the previous PP-led government agreed a €100-a-month benefit for anyone with children, but this comes in the form of a tax deduction which is not refunded until they file their end-of-year declaration. Otherwise, no help exists for parents until they have at least three children, or two children if one is disabled or they are single mothers or fathers.
According to the SEF, quoting figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the current birth rate is at its lowest for 19 years. Over 2017, a total of 391,930 babies were born – a fall of 4.5% on the previous year, or 18,653 fewer – the lowest figure since the year 1999. And at 8.4 births per 1,000 inhabitants, the natality rate is at its lowest in living memory.
Spain has the second-highest life expectancy in Europe after Switzerland, at 83.1 years, with women living on average to 85.7 years and men to 80.4.
This does not mean it is unusual to live beyond early or mid-80s, since life expectancy is affected by those who die long before old age, through illnesses or accidents in childhood, youth or young adulthood, skewing the average – in fact, if traffic accident and suicide rates fell and cancer survival rates improved, it is likely Spanish life expectancy would soar.
Already, the country has an above-averagely high number of residents aged 100 or more, and at least one person aged 110 or over in almost every region.
Effectively, anyone who reached current State retirement age, 65, last year can expect to live another 19.1 years if they are male or 23 years more if they are female.
But the low birth rate means future generations of workers will be too reduced to continue to fund retirement pensions, and essential public service providers such as emergency workers, doctors, nurses and teachers are likely to be thin on the ground.
Last year's mortality rate went up by 3.2%, with 13,556 more deaths in 2017 than in 2016, and the difference between births and deaths – not including emigration or immigration - meant a population reduction of 31,245.
The INE says the number of women of fertile age – defined as 15 to 49 – reduced last year to 10.57, or fewer than a quarter of the population, largely due to a previous birth-rate crisis in the 1980s which means today's adults aged between 28 and 38 are likely to have been only children and are fewer in number than other age groups. And those who do have children nowadays are unlikely to have more than one, even if they want to have more.
In 2016, the average woman of fertile age had 1.34 children – meaning the rate per couple would be about half of this – and by the end of 2017, this had fallen to 1.31.
Of the total number of babies born, 75,564 had foreign mothers, making up 19.3% of the total, compared with 18.5% in 2016.
And while infant mortality has fallen in the last five years – from three per 1,000 to 2.75 – this still means 143 newborns did not survive the year. If the birth rate is 8.4 per 1,000 inhabitants, this translates as all the babies born in a population of 17,000, or that of a small town, would not have survived to their first birthdays.
Whilst still a low figure even for a first-world nation, the impact of the infant mortality rate on the population as a whole highlights the extent to which birth numbers are in crisis.
Spain's new socialist government announced plans within its first week in office to set up a commission for tackling child poverty in the country, something which one in three youngsters are at risk of.
Charities such as Save the Children and UNICEF have championed the move and called for the commission to agree to at least €100 per month per child to be given to families. Save the Children says 1.6 million kids in Spain are living in extreme first-world poverty, generally considered to be a situation where their parents cannot afford electricity and water and where children have to miss meals because the family does not have the money to pay for them.
The commission needs to focus on single parents in particular, since they are 'in the most fragile situation', the global charities say, and want to see these treated as a 'large family' for support purposes irrespective of how many kids they have, not just those with two or more.
“At the moment, the maximum benefit per dependent child is €24.50, and anyone who has children knows this goes nowhere towards covering their needs,” say UNICEF and Save the Children.
“For this reason, we want to see families given €100 per month per child, especially if they are in a situation of extreme poverty.”
UNICEF points out that although the average number of children who leave school at 16 with no qualifications, this rises to 50% among pupils living in poverty.
Related Topics
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