The birth rate shows signs of a slight recovery after the collapse in the number of births derived from the covid pandemic. In the first two months of 2024, 53,080 babies were born in Spain, the highest number since 2020.
According to the data released today by the INE, they are 2.83% more than the 51,616 births registered in the same period of 2023, just 0.90% more than the 52,607 in 2022 and 10% more than the 48,251 in 2021 , although they are still 7.13% less than the 57,157 that were registered in 2020, before the arrival of the pandemic.
In fact, Spain has not exceeded 30,000 births per month since October 2021. In January of this year, 27,380 were recorded (1% more than a year before) and, in February, 25,699 (almost a 3% year-on-year increase), which represents an average of 884 babies delivered per day.
The maternities that are growing the most are those of young women between 25 and 35 years old. And although six out of every ten babies born in February had a mother in her thirties, the statistics also confirm the growth of late motherhoods: there were more births to mothers over 40 years of age (2,782) than to those under 25 years of age (2,474). And births of those over 50 years of age (28) grew by 85% compared to the previous year.
The communities where the most births occurred in the first two months of the year were Andalusia (9,936), Catalunya (9,204), Madrid (8,775) and the Valencian Community (5,891), with almost two thirds of the national total between the four.
However, the territories where the birth rate grew the most compared to the previous year were La Rioja (30.16%), Cantabria (24.21%) and Navarra (14.90%). On the other hand, it was reduced in Galicia (2.23%), Extremadura (0.81%) and Andalusia (0.57%).
The INE has also released today the monthly estimate of deaths, which indicates that in the first 13 weeks of 2024, 122,590 people died in Spain, the lowest number in that period since 2019, before covid, when 119,916 deaths were recorded.
