Spain’s demographic woes show no signs of reversing in the foreseeable future.
Following a year when births in the country hit a historic low, a survey commissioned by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo found that only 13% of Spaniards in their prime childbearing years planned to have children in the next five years.
When asked if they planned to have children in the next five years, 82.9% ruled out the possibility. A small percentage were undecided. In a country where the average age for women to have their first child is 33, there were no significant differences in responses between those under 30 and those over 30. There were slight differences between the sexes, with a greater reluctance on the part of women (84.9%) than men (80.8%).
While responses to the question held steady across the political spectrum, differences across politics were discernible in the reasons respondents cited for not having children in the near future, the number of children they hoped to have, and the question of abortion.
The main reason given for delaying childbearing at least five years was the high cost of living, cited by 37.1%. Almost 20% cited the personal and professional sacrifice that parenthood implies as the main reason for not wanting to have children while 18.5% cited job uncertainty, 11.8% the poor prospects of Spain and the world, and 11.8% family instability.
Taking economic challenges out of the equation, 34.2% of those consulted said they preferred to have two children. The preference for three children slightly exceeded that of having just one, at 17.9% of respondents to 17.3%. Only 3.6% said they would be willing to have four or more children.
Among those who voted for VOX and the center-right Partido Popular in the last elections, 26% and 25%, respectively, would like to have three or more heirs, a figure that drops to 20% in the case of center-left PSOE supporters and less than 16% in those who voted for other parties, which included Spain’s collection of far-left parties.
When posed with the hypothetical situation of an unplanned pregnancy and the option of abortion, respondents were equally divided, with 44.3% saying they would not consider terminating the pregnancy if it were unwanted, while another 42.7% answered they would. The remaining 13% were uncertain about what they would do in the case of an unwanted pregnancy.
Here, the political divide was clear. Those who had voted for the far-left parties responded that they would abort in the case of unwanted pregnancy at a rate of 63.7%, followed by those who voted for the PSOE at 51.5%. The least inclined to abortion were VOX voters, with 24.2% saying they would abort an unwanted pregnancy and 28.7% of PP voters saying the same.
Pessimism about the situation of Spain and the world as the reason for delaying childbearing was also significantly different across the political spectrum, with conservatives being the most pessimistic. Only 4.9% of those who had voted for the far-left cited the bad situation of Spain and the world as the main reason for not having children in the near future, compared to 20% of VOX voters. Only 12% and 10% of respondents from the center-right and center-left claimed this reason for not including childbearing in their personal five-year plan. Far-left voters cited personal and professional sacrifice as their second most important reason, after financial challenges, for not wanting children.
In the last decade, the number of births in Spain has decreased by 27.6%: according to the most recent data released by the National Statics Institute (INE). In 2022, 329,251 children were born in the country, while ten years earlier, that figure had been 454,648, though birth rates started to sharply drop in the country starting in the 1970s. In the first half of last year, a mere 155,629 births were recorded in Spain, the lowest figure the INE has on record.
At the same time, the number of foreign mothers giving birth is increasing. The figure stood at 23% of births in 2022, with foreign-born mothers also having children at slightly younger ages, at an average age of 30.5 years old compared to 33 years old for Spanish women.
The figures show that despite their concerns about the demographic demise of Europeans and their efforts to encourage family-friendly policies, Spanish conservatives are only slightly more inclined to have children than those to their political left and more often held back from parenthood by fears of civilizational collapse than progressives.
