A total of 156,202 babies were born in Spain in the first half of this year, 0.28% more than in the same period last year, but still a staggering 25% less than a decade ago, according to the monthly birth estimate of the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
Specifically, 156,202 births were registered in the first half of 2024, 52,173 fewer than in the first six months of 2014, when 208,375 births were registered. In July alone, 25,909 children were born.
Despite the slight increase experienced this year (from 155,762 to 156,202, 440 more births), the trend over the last decade has been downward. Thus, in the first half of 2014, 208,375 babies were born; 204,910 in the same months of 2015; 200,255 in 2016; 190,962 in 2017; 181,366 in 2018; 175,429 in 2019; 170,741 in 2020; 159,812 in 2021; 159,519 in 2022 and 155,762 in 2023.
The sharpest decline in the last ten years was observed between 2020 and 2021, with a 6.4% drop in births in the first half of the year, coinciding with the Covid-19 pandemic.
By age of the mother, the majority of women who have had a child in the first half of this year 2024, 33%, were between 30 and 34 years old; closely followed by those aged 35 to 39 (29.7% of the total). There were also 14,525 births to mothers aged 40 to 44 and 27,170 to mothers aged 25 to 29.
On the other hand, 267,168 deaths have been recorded in the first 31 weeks of 2024, 1.52% more than in the same period in 2023, when there were 263,130. This is a figure similar to that recorded in previous years, except in 2020, when 304,421 deaths were reached, coinciding with the Covid-19 pandemic.
