A vertiginous fall in the birth rate
In ten years, the number of births has fallen by 30% in Spain, found a report by the INE (National Statistics Institute) released in spring 2019. Women having an average of 1.25 children against 1.44 ten years ago. This translated concretely into 370,000 births in 2018, the lowest figure since 2002. Another finding of this study is that the decline in the number of children per woman is accompanied by a decline in the average age of childbearing. This is now 31 years, one of the lowest in the world, compared to 29.3 years ten years ago. Perhaps even more surprisingly, the study indicates that nearly 63% of mothers are 40 years old or older. For many analysts, this demographic crisis coincides with the economic crisis that Spain has been going through for a good ten years. If the figures have recovered at the macroeconomic level since 2013, the official year of its exit from the crisis, this end of the crisis has not necessarily been verified at the level of the wallets and in the heads the concern persists. When surveyed, half of women of childbearing age would like to have two children but are not taking the plunge, citing precarious working conditions, inflexible working hours and inadequate childcare assistance. In Spain, 63% of children under three years of age do not attend school because of the lack of childcare facilities. By reducing the number of immigrants, the economic crisis has also slowed down the usual contribution of these populations to population growth. Finally, another factor explains this decline in births: the increasingly late departure of young people, who leave home about ten years later than in the Nordic countries. This is also due to economic reasons, such as the time it takes to find a stable job and the rising cost of rent. This dizzying drop in the birth rate has not been altered by the pandemic and the containment of spring 2020, emphasizes a new report by the INE published in December 2021. With 341,315 births in 2020, Spain this time records the lowest figure historically since the post-war year of 1941.
A changing family structure
The post-Franco era had already brought about a great political and cultural revolution by taking women out of the three "Cs" to which they were assigned: kitchen, chiquillos (the little ones) and priest. However, the Spanish family structure has been deeply modified in the last decade, especially through the evolution of the place of women. A few figures help us to understand the current panorama. If marriage continues to decline steadily (-5.7% in 2018 compared to 2017), another profound trend marks this institution, the steady decline of church marriages, overtaken by civil marriages since 2009. The average age of the bride and groom is still rising: over 38 for men and over 35 for women. And 50% of children are born outside of marriage. As for divorces, they concern one marriage out of two. While the presence of women in the labor market has increased in 2018 with an employment rate of 61% (compared to 53.1% in 2013 - Source Eurostat), Spain remains the second European country in terms of female unemployment (17%) when the European average is 7.1%. They hold the most precarious jobs and it is estimated that even with equal skills, they are paid 13% less on average per hour. And in 2018, only 27% of Spanish companies had a woman in a management position, according to a study by Grant Thornton. Politically, it is worth noting that the 2015 municipal elections brought two women to the helm of Spain's top two cities, Manuela Carmena, in Madrid and Ada Colau in Barcelona, and that Pedro Sánchez's government displayed a strong signal in 2018, appointing more women than men (11 versus 6). Unfortunately, at the same time, Spain has deplored many murders of women: 39 in mid-October 2018, almost 1,000, since they began to be counted in 2003. For this reason, Women's Day on March 8, 2018, was marked by unprecedented demonstrations throughout Spain. A day that was intended to be the day of women's rights but also the occasion of the first feminist strike. This anger manifested itself again in April 2018 after the decision considered lax of the court of Pamplona not retaining the charge of rape but that of abuse of weakness in the judgment of five Andalusians, after the assault of a young woman during the festivals of Pamplona. To fight against violence against women, Spain had adopted in 2017 a plan of 1 billion euros over 5 years (200 million per year), and will devote part of the European funds received by Spain after the Covid pandemic to the fight against gender-based violence. In addition, in July 2021, the Council of Ministers passed the "only yes is yes" bill, which considers any non-consensual sexual act to be rape
The rise of youth poverty
A study carried out in 2016 by the Reina Sofia Center for Adolescence already presented a rather worrying panorama regarding the situation of Spanish youth. Analyzing 5 dimensions of his life and comparing them with the results of other countries of the European Union: employment, emancipation, education, life (mortality and fertility rates, accidents, suicides...) and new technologies. In total, the young Spaniard found himself with an overall index of 5.6, in twenty-fourth place in the European Union, ahead of Croatia, Italy, Bulgaria and Romania, and very far from Denmark, which obtained an 8. It was employment and emancipation that made Spain plunge, since in education and life, the figures joined the European average and exceeded it in new technologies. The same gap within Spain: the Basque Country, Madrid, Catalonia, Navarre and Asturias came out on top when Andalusia, Castilla la Mancha, Balearic Islands and Canary Islands were at the bottom of the ranking. A new study presented in July 2018 by the Youth Council once again highlights the precariousness of youth employment and its consequences on the difficulty of leaving the family home. In 2018, only 19% of young people aged 16 to 29 had been able to become independent, the lowest figure since 2002. A state of affairs due mainly to their greater precariousness in work (55.5% of young people with a temporary job compared to an average of 26.9% for the entire population) and the increasingly high cost of housing, up 9.28% from 2017 to 2018. With an estimated average salary of €900, it is estimated that they should now spend over 91% of their budget on it when over 45% was sufficient eight years ago and 30% would be ideal. This rise in poverty among young people was reflected in the social plan by the movement of milleeuristas, which in the 2000s brought together young graduates who did not exceed a salary of 1,000 euros. But with the crisis, it was followed by a new movement, that of the nimilleuristas, who a few years later wanted to make it known that they no longer earned even that amount, despite their studies.
In the vanguard for same-sex marriage
With the slogan " la familia sí importa ," "yes, the family matters," and at the call of the Spanish Forum for the Family, there were about 180,000 of them marching in Madrid in June 2015 to protest against the imminent passage of the law allowing same-sex marriage. A demonstration that was also attended by about 20 bishops and a delegation from the PP, but without its leader Mariano Rajoy or the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference. This did not prevent the passage of the law on same-sex marriage on June 30, 2015. " A small change in the text that brings about a huge change in the lives of thousands of our compatriots," stressed José Luis Zapatero, head of government. Spain then became the fourth country in the world to adopt this type of law, after the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada, but the first with regard to the possibility of adoption, also retained in the law. A law approved a year earlier by 66% of Spaniards surveyed by the CIS (Center for Sociological Research) even though the possibility of adopting only garnered a little less than 50% of the votes. In 2018, marriages between same-sex couples amounted to 4,726, or 2.9% of marriages. Another significant fact is that under the acronym MADO (Madrid Orgullo), the Pride March held in Madrid in July is one of the largest in Europe, regularly hosting more than a million people. In terms of societal legislation, the year 2021 was marked by another text concerning trans-identity. Passed by the Spanish government in June 2021, after much debate including within the government, this bill allows gender self-determination for people over 16 (without having to declare themselves ill, as currently) as well as for people over 14 (with the support of their parents or guardians) and also guarantees access to assisted reproduction for lesbian, bisexual or trans people.
The Erasmus destination
Strong decentralization and the importance of private denominational education are the two main characteristics of the Spanish school system. It is based on three layers: pre-school education, school education and university education. In line with the European Higher Education Area, the Spanish higher education system has been composed of three levels, Bachelor, Master and Doctorate, since 2007. In all of Spain, the community is responsible for education up to higher education. The latter is the responsibility of the State. For those who might be tempted, you should know that Spain hosts the most foreign students in the Erasmus program, according to data provided by the European Commission for the year 2017-2018. With an average of 60,000 students per year. And in the first five places of the top 10 most popular cities in this area, we regularly find, in order of preference, Granada, Madrid, Valencia, Seville and Barcelona.
