In 2023, the Spanish autonomous city of Melilla had an average age of maternity of 31.91 years old, the lowest in the country. In contrast, Madrid average was 33.3 years. The national average stood at 32.59 years.
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Basic Demographic Indicators: Average age at childbirth, by order of birth, by Autonomous Community, according to the nationality (Spanish/foreign) of the mother. Annual. Autonomous Communities and Cities.
In 2023, women who were 35 years old had the highest number of births, with over 23,000 deliveries reported. During that same year, there were 1,516 births recorded among minors and 236 among people 50 years and older.
The mean age at first marriage in Spain was, along with Sweden, one of the highest in the European Union. Based on this setup, it is no wonder that the Spanish autonomous communities featured quite elevated numbers - particularly in the Canary Islands, where the average age at first marriage stood at over 41 years old for men and over ** for women in 2023. Easy come easy go Marriage might be undergoing a declining popularity among Spaniards, or so it would seem by its national (heterosexual) marriage figures, which have experienced a slight decrease overtime. In 2023, the Balearic Islands recording the highest numbers on the list of marriage rate in Spain, with a rate of **** marriages per 1,000 people. Moreover, Spain has one of the highest divorce rates in Europe, with **** divorces per 100 marriages carried out in this country in 2020. Ageing: a common problem across the continent The age at first marriage is not the only digit that is on the rise in Spain. Data related to age in the Mediterranean country essentially behaves in a similar fashion as the rest of its European counterparts, whose population is also slowly but surely getting older. In 2023, the life expectancy at birth in Spain stood at ***** years, one of the highest in the world.
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We study the effects of women’s school starting age on the infant health of their offspring. In Spain, children born in December start school a year earlier than those born the following January, despite being essentially the same age. We follow a regression discontinuity design to compare the health at birth of the children of women born in January versus the previous December, using administrative, population-level data. We find small and insignificant effects on average weight at birth, but, compared to the children of December-born mothers, the children of January-born mothers are more likely to have very low birthweight. We then show that January-born women have the same educational attainment and the same partnership dynamics as December-born women. However, they finish school later and are (several months) older when they have their first child. Our results suggest that maternal age is a plausible mechanism behind our estimated impacts of school starting age on infant health.
In 2024, October ranked first as the period in which the most babies were born in Spain, with a total of approximately ****** births. On the other hand, April registered the lowest number of births, with a total of ****** newborns. Spain had an average fertility rate of **** children per woman in 2023, when Murcia and Melilla ranked as the regions of Spain with the highest birth rate.
According to the most recent data, more people died in Spain than were born in 2024, with figures reaching over 439,000 deaths versus 322,034 newborns. From 2006 to 2024, 2008 ranked as the year in which the largest number of children were born, with figures reaching over half a million newborns. The depopulation of a country The population of Spain declined for many years, a negative trend reverted from 2016 onwards, and was projected to grow by nearly two million by 2029 compared to 2024. Despite this expected increase, Spain has one of the lowest fertility rate in the European Union, with barely 1.29 children per woman according to the latest reports. During the last years, the country featured a continuous population density of approximately 94 inhabitants per square kilometer – a figure far from the European average, which stood nearly at nearly 112 inhabitants per square kilometer in 2021. Migration inflow: an essential role in the Spanish population growth One of the key points to balance out the population trend in Spain is immigration – Spain’s immigration figures finally started to pick up in 2015 after a downward trend that presumably initiated after the 2008 financial crisis, which left Spain with one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe.
The fertility rate of a country is the average number of children that women from that country will have throughout their reproductive years. In the second half of the nineteenth century in Spain, the fertility rate fluctuated, but overall it had decreased from 5.1 children per woman in 1850 to 4.7 in 1905. From 1905 until 1935 the fertility decline followed a steady trajectory, falling from 4.7 to 3.5 births per woman during this time. Between 1935 and 1940, the Spanish Civil War caused the fertility rate to drop by 0.7 children per woman. The rate dropped again in the 1940s and 50s, before Spain experienced a baby boom, much like the rest of Western Europe, in the mid 1900s. Compared with the rest of Europe, Spain's baby boom was relatively small, although the population did not begin to decrease again until the late 1970s. Spain had one of the lowest fertility rates in the world at the end of the 1900s, and at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the fertility rate was at it's lowest point ever, reaching just 1.2 children per woman in 2000. This number has increased slightly in the past two decades, and is expected to be just over 1.3 in 2020.
In 2022, the share of births to teenage mothers in the European Union was below *** percent. In the European region as a whole, this share was nearly *** percent. The wider European region always recorded a higher rate of teenage births than the EU. Since the *****, births to adolescent mothers have declined nearly year-on-year in Europe. Which countries had high teenage birth rates? Nearly *** percent of live births in Bulgaria were attributed to mothers under below the age of ** in 2021. This was the highest share of births to teenage mothers in the European Union, followed by Romania and Slovakia. On the other hand, less than *** percent of births in Norway, the Netherlands, and Switzerland were to teenagers. Mean age of women at first birth Alongside the decline in teenage births, the average age of women giving birth in Europe has increased. In the mid-*****, the average childbearing age in Europe stood around 26 years. By 2022, this had risen to over 30 years. This reflects societal changes in which women are waiting longer to have children, reasons which include better access to contraception and greater bodily autonomy. When looking at countries specifically, Ireland and Spain were among the countries with the highest average age of mothers in Europe.
Life expectancy in Spain was below thirty in the year 1880, and over the course of the next 140 years, it is expected to have increased to 83.4 by the year 2020. Although life expectancy has generally increased throughout Spain's history, there were several times where the rate deviated from its previous trajectory. The most notable changes were a result of the global influenza epidemic of the 1910s, (called the 'Spanish Flu' as it received more press coverage in neutral Spain, during the First World War) and the Spanish Civil War two decades later.
The average number of children born per woman in Italy has significantly changed over the last 70 years. In the 1950s, the Italian female was usually a mother of more than two kids, whereas in 2017 women had about one child less than females living in the middle of the twentieth century. Overall, roughly 458 thousand infants were born in Italy in 2017.
Parenthood postponed to a later age
Along with the drop in the fertility rate, an increase of the average age of mothers at childbirth can be observed. In 2017, Italian women giving birth to a child were about four years older than mothers delivering in the 1970s.
Fertility rate in Italy the lowest in the European Union
With 1.34 children born per woman in 2016, Italy and Spain close the fertility rate ranking of the European Union countries. The first place on the podium was taken by France, where on average 1.92 children were born per female.
A global phenomenon, known as the demographic transition, has seen life expectancy from birth increase rapidly over the past two centuries. In pre-industrial societies, the average life expectancy was around 24 years, and it is believed that this was the case throughout most of history, and in all regions. The demographic transition then began in the industrial societies of Europe, North America, and the West Pacific around the turn of the 19th century, and life expectancy rose accordingly. Latin America was the next region to follow, before Africa and most Asian populations saw their life expectancy rise throughout the 20th century.
As of 2023, the countries with the highest life expectancy included Switzerland, Japan, and Spain. As of that time, a new-born child in Switzerland could expect to live an average of **** years. Around the world, females consistently have a higher average life expectancy than males, with females in Europe expected to live an average of *** years longer than males on this continent. Increases in life expectancy The overall average life expectancy in OECD countries increased by **** years from 1970 to 2019. The countries that saw the largest increases included Turkey, India, and South Korea. The life expectancy at birth in Turkey increased an astonishing 24.4 years over this period. The countries with the lowest life expectancy worldwide as of 2022 were Chad, Lesotho, and Nigeria, where a newborn could be expected to live an average of ** years. Life expectancy in the U.S. The life expectancy in the United States was ***** years as of 2023. Shockingly, the life expectancy in the United States has decreased in recent years, while it continues to increase in other similarly developed countries. The COVID-19 pandemic and increasing rates of suicide and drug overdose deaths from the opioid epidemic have been cited as reasons for this decrease.
In 2024, Monaco was the European country estimated to have the highest fertility rate. The country had a fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman. Other small countries such as Gibraltar or Montenegro also came towards the top of the list for 2024, while the large country with the highest fertility rate was France, with 1.64 children per woman. On the other hand, Ukraine had the lowest fertility rate, averaging around one child per woman.
Life expectancy in Australia was just below 35 in the year 1870, and over the course of the next 150 years, it is expected to have increased to 83.2 by the year 2020. Although life expectancy has generally increased throughout Australia's history, there were several times where the rate deviated from its previous trajectory. the most noticeable changes were between 1890 and 1920. This period included Australia's Independence movement, the implementation of the 'White Australia' policy, the First World War and Spanish Flu epidemic, all of which impacted the demographics of Australia.
In 1870, the average person born in the Philippines could expect to live to just under the age of 31 years old. This figure would remain unchanged until the early 1900s, when life expectancy would fall to just over 25 years in the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902, as disruptions in food supply and healthcare would result in the loss of several hundred thousand Filipinos to famine and disease. This drop would be accompanied by another drop in the 1920s as the Spanish Flu would ravage the country. However, life expectancy would quickly recover and begin to rise under the United States military administration of the island, as investment by the American government would result in significant expansion in access to nutrition and healthcare. As a result, life expectancy would rise to over 41 years by 1940.
Life expectancy in the Philippines would decline once more in the 1940s, however, in the 1941 invasion and subsequent occupation of the island nation by the Empire of Japan in the Second World War, in which famine and causalities of war would result in the death of an estimated 500,000 Filipinos. Despite significant destruction in the Second World War, and an ending to the bulk of American investment in the country following its independence from the U.S. in 1946, life expectancy in the Philippines would quickly rise in the post-war years as the country would modernize; almost doubling in the two decades between 1945 and 1965 alone. It then plateaued throughout the 1970s and 1980s, during the authoritarian regime of Ferdinand Marcos, before the People Power Revolution in 1986 returned democracy to the country, and living standards began to improve once more. Life expectancy has also increased since this time, and in 2020, it is estimated that the average person born in the Philippines can expect to live to just over the age of 71 years old.
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In 2023, the Spanish autonomous city of Melilla had an average age of maternity of 31.91 years old, the lowest in the country. In contrast, Madrid average was 33.3 years. The national average stood at 32.59 years.