Society at a Glance 2024 - Country Notes: Spain

Spotlight on fertility trends

In 2022, 328 704 babies were born in Spain, corresponding to a total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.16 children per woman, below the OECD average of 1.51.

Across the OECD on average, the TFR steadily declined from 1960 until 2002. There was a small fertility rebound in the 2000s until 2008, upon which the TFR dropped to an all-time low of 1.5 in 2022. In Spain fertility rates started to decline in earnest during the late 1970s - later than in most other OECD countries, but by the late 1990s the TFR had fallen to 1,15 children per woman. As in many other OECD countries there was a small fertility rebound during the 2000s, but fertility rates remain below the OECD on average, and have fallen again to the low levels recorded during the late 1990s.

Figure 1. In Spain total fertility rates have been falling below OECD average in the last four decades

Number of children per woman aged 15 to 49, Spain and OECD average, 1960 to 2022

Source: Figure 1.1 in OECD (2024), Society at a Glance 2024, https://stat.link/vxdlnc.

Many factors affect fertility choices, including employment of both men and women, unemployment, financial support for families (e.g. paid parental leave and childcare supports) and housing costs (Figure 1.7, https://stat.link/8zu7m3 and Figure 1.14, https://stat.link/ois3k8). However other factors such as (financial) uncertainty, as well as norms and attitudes also play a role. In many OECD countries, the desire to establish oneself in labour and housing markets have contributed to a delay of childbearing. In Spain, the mean age of mothers at childbirth rose from 30.7 years in 2000 to 32.6 years in 2022, around one and a half years above the OECD on average (Figure 1.5, https://stat.link/163n2d).

The fall in TFRs is related to women having fewer children and/or none at all. Childlessness has been on the rise across the OECD, but there is cross-national variation in timing and extent. In Spain, there was a significant rise in permanent childlessness from around 9% for women born in 1960 to about 24% for women born in 1975. (Figure 1.3, https://stat.link/mvkw3b).

How does Spain compare?

Selection of indicators related to the chapter on fertility trends and other social indicators

Source: OECD (2024), Society at a Glance 2024, https://stat.link/vxdlnc.