Spain posts lowest birth rate in 2022 since records began over 80 years ago

SPAIN has recorded a more than 80 year low in births registered in 2022. The report by Spain’s National Office of Statistics (INE), released on Wednesday, February 15, revealed that the country has the second lowest birth rate in Europe.

Data collected by the INE states that just 330,000 babies were born in the country last year, the lowest rate recorded since the agency opened in 1941. The country’s birth rate began to decline in 2016 and has continued to drop every year since.

The low birth rate of just above 329,000 babies means that Spain’s population is declining as less babies are born than people die in each year.

Experts say that there are numerous causes for this decline in births, including that Spanish women typically opt to have children later than in other countries. The ageing population, social and economic issues and pandemic uncertainty were also cited as causes.

Globally, the picture is vastly different, with the UN predicting a population explosion in several countries and transformation of the demographic picture to mean that 80 per cent of the world’s population will live in Africa and Asia by 2100.