Birth rates plummet: half of Spanish provinces register their lowest natality in 80 years

Last year a new historical minimum was reached with 338,532 births, since the INE has records no year has registered fo few babies  

 

Laura Albor

19th February, 2022

Spanish birth rates are continuing their free fall. In 2021, a new record low was set again with the birth of 338,532 babies, the lowest figure since the National Institute of Statistics (INE) was started in 1941.

Although the figure is not yet official, it does allow us to see how the trend, also affected by the pandemic [ pseudo-pandemic, ed. ] continues to decline. As can be seen in the map above, 23 territories recorded their worst data in 2021 and 11 did so in 2020.

Others stayed very close to their worst records, such as Huelva, which recorded its worst data in 2018 with 4,253 births, but in 2021 only six more babies were born (4,259).

In absolute terms, it was Soria, with the arrival of 548 newbirths, that registered the lowest number in 2021.

Further behind proportionally are Ceuta (690 births) and Palencia (723 births). However, if these data are related to the population of each province, it can be seen that the lowest birth rate last year was recorded in Zamora, with 4.64 births per 1,000 inhabitants. At the opposite extreme are Melilla (10.34) and Almería (9.43), as can be seen in the following graph: 

 
In the rest of the provinces, we need to go much further back in time to find their lowest birth rates. Nine of them registered this in the 1990s (Castellón, Guadalajara, Navarra, Álava, Murcia, La Rioja, Almería, Toledo and Zaragoza), while one (Huesca) in the 1980s, and another (Melilla) in the 70s. The others (Alicante, Gerona, Madrid, Tarragona, Barcelona, ​​Balearic Islands), did so in the 40s and 50s.

If we look at the differences between the year with the highest number of births and the year with the lowest, the Community of Castilla y León is the one with the most affected provinces. Thus, in Zamora in 1943, 8,456 children were enrolled while last year, only 764 did. A similar case is that of Palencia (6,298 in 1948; 723 in 2021) or Ávila (6,840 in 1945; 838 in 2020).

Source: ABC.es

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