Demographics
In ten years, the number of births has fallen by 30% in Spain, noted a report by the INE (National Statistics Institute) published in spring 2019. On average, women have 1.25 children, compared with 1.44 ten years ago. This translated into 370,000 births in 2018, the lowest figure since 2002. Again according to INE, this trend has been amplified, since in 2022, with just 329,812 births, Spain will record its lowest level of births for 81 years, with a fertility rate of 1.16 in 2022 (1.22 in Andalusia) and continuing in 2023 with a 2.6% drop in births compared to the previous year. Another finding of the study is that the drop in the number of children per woman is accompanied by a decline in the average age at childbirth. Today, it stands at 31, one of the highest in the world, compared with 29.3 ten years ago. Perhaps even more surprisingly, the study shows that almost 63% of mothers are aged forty and over. For many analysts, this demographic crisis coincides with the economic crisis Spain has been experiencing for the past decade. While macroeconomic figures have improved since 2013, the country's official year of recovery from the crisis, the upturn hasn't necessarily been reflected in people's wallets, and there's still plenty to worry about. Half of all women of childbearing age surveyed would like to have two children, but are not taking the plunge, citing precarious working conditions, inflexible working hours and inadequate childcare support. In Spain, 63% of children under the age of three do not attend school, due to a lack of childcare facilities. By reducing the number of emigrants, the economic crisis has also slowed the usual contribution of these populations to demographic growth. Finally, another factor explains this decline in births: the increasingly late departure of young people, who leave home around ten years later than in the Nordic countries. Here too, there are economic reasons: the time it takes to find a stable job and the rising cost of rent. As this low fertility rate is accompanied by a steadily rising life expectancy, it is easy to understand why the increase in the proportion of older people in Spain is becoming more and more significant and increasingly worrying, particularly in terms of pension funding. It is calculated that by 2050, the over-65s will account for more than 30% of the population, and the number of over-80s will exceed 4 million. In a report sent to Brussels, the Spanish government estimates that there will be 6 pensioners for every 10 workers in 2050, compared with 3 today, and puts the cost of pensions at €300,000 million a year by that date, compared with €140,000 million today.
A changing family structure
The post-Franco era had already brought about a major political and cultural revolution by removing women from the three "Cs" to which they had been assigned: kitchen, chiquillos (the little ones) and priest. But the structure of the Spanish family has undergone further profound change over the last decade, particularly in terms of the changing role of women. Here are a few figures to illustrate the current panorama. While the number of marriages continues to fall steadily (-3.5% in 2023 compared to 2022), another profound trend is marking this institution: the steady decline in church weddings, overtaken by civil marriages since 2009. The average age of brides and grooms continues to rise: over 38 for men and over 35 for women. And 50% of children are born out of wedlock. Divorces account for 1 in 2 marriages, 63% of which are in Andalusia. Although the presence of women in the labor market increased in 2018, with an employment rate of 61% (compared with 53.1% in 2013 - Source: Eurostat), Spain will still be the second European country in 2023 in terms of female unemployment (13.9% and 18.2% in Andalusia), when the European average is 6.3%. Women hold the most precarious jobs, and it is estimated that even with equal skills, they are paid an average of thirteen euros less per hour. And in 2018, only 27% of Spanish companies had a woman in a management position, according to a study by Grant Thornton. On the political front, it's 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 by including more women than men (11 versus 6). Unfortunately, at the same time, Spain has seen a large number of women murdered: 1,245 since records began in 2003. That's why Women's Day on March 8, 2018 was marked by unprecedented demonstrations across Spain. A day that was intended to be Women's Rights Day, but also the occasion of the first feminist strike. This anger manifested itself once again in April 2018 after the Pamplona court's decision, judged to be lax, not to retain 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 Sanfermines. To combat violence against women, Spain had adopted in 2017 a plan of 1 billion euros over 5 years (200 million per year) and despite some delays, 400 million have already been allocated to this area since 2017, even if its use and the distribution of funds still lack transparency according to the Spanish Court of Auditors. In 2023, the number of feminicides recorded in Spain stood at 55, continuing the decline in this number recorded the previous year.
The rise of youth poverty
A study carried out in 2016 by the Reina Sofia Center for Adolescence already presented a rather worrying panorama of the situation of young Spaniards. By analyzing 5 dimensions of their lives and comparing them with the results of other European Union countries: 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 position in the European Union, ahead of Croatia, Italy, Bulgaria and Romania, and a long way behind Denmark with an 8. It was employment and emancipation that made Spain plunge, since in education and life, the figures were on a par with the European average, and exceeded it in new technologies. The same breach was made within Spain: the Basque Country, Madrid, Catalonia, Navarre and Asturias came out on top, while Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, the Balearic Islands and the 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 self-employed, the lowest figure since 2002. And it hasn't improved since, as only 17% were able to become self-employed in 2023. This state of affairs is essentially due to their greater job insecurity (55.5% of young people have a temporary job, compared to an average of 26.9% for the population as a whole) and the increasingly high cost of housing, which is rising steadily (+10% in 2023 compared to 2022). With an average salary estimated at €1,000, it is estimated that they should now spend over 91% of their budget on housing, whereas over 45% was sufficient a decade ago, and the ideal would be to spend 30%. This rise in poverty among young people was reflected in social terms by the " milleeurista" movement, which in the 2000s brought together young graduates earning less than €1,000. A few years later, they wanted to make it known that they no longer earned even that amount, despite their studies. The acuteness of the problem of poor housing among young people was also at the heart of the demonstrations that saw tens of thousands of people march across Spain, particularly young people, on October 13, 2023. Under the slogan " la vivienda es un derecho, no un negocio " (housing is a right, not a trade).
In the vanguard for same-sex marriage
Under the slogan " la familia sí importa","yes, the family matters", and at the call of the Spanish Forum for the Family, some 180,000 people marched in Madrid in June 2005 to protest against the imminent adoption of the law authorizing same-sex marriage. The demonstration was also attended by some twenty 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 adoption of the same-sex marriage law on June 30, 2005. " A small change in the text that brings about a huge change in the lives of thousands of our compatriots ", emphasized José Luis Zapatero, head of government. Spain then became the fourth country in the world to adopt this type of law, after Holland, Belgium and Canada, but the first as regards the possibility of adopting. A year earlier, the law had been approved by 66% of Spaniards polled by the CIS (Centre for Sociological Research), although the possibility of adopting received just under 50% of the vote. The first same-sex marriage took place at Seville Town Hall on September 15, 2006. In 2018, marriages between same-sex couples totaled 4,726, or 2.9% of all marriages. In another significant development, under the acronym MADO (Madrid Orgullo), the Pride March held in Madrid in July is one of the largest in Europe, regularly welcoming over a million people (around ten thousand for the one in Seville). Published in June 2019, an essay entitled " lo personal es político ", by Juan Ramón Barbancho and Pablo Morterero, takes stock of forty years of struggle by the homosexual community in Andalusia, at a time when the arrival of the far-right Vox party in the Andalusian parliament is raising fears of regression in this area.
Sevilla and Granada, popular with Erasmus students
Strong decentralization and the importance of private denominational education are the two main features of the Spanish school system. It is based on three strata: pre-school education, school education and university education. In line with the European Higher Education Area, since 2007 the Spanish higher education system has consisted of three levels: Bachelor's, Master's and Doctorate. As in the rest of Spain, the Andalusian Community (Junta de Andalucía) is responsible for education up to and including higher education. The latter is the responsibility of the State. Andalusia has 10 public universities and one private university. Each province has its own university. Two public universities are based in Seville: the University of Seville (Hispalense), the oldest, founded in 1505 by a bull of Pope Julius II, and the most recent, Pablo de Olavide, founded in 1997. Granada's UGR is the heir to the ancient madrasa (school) of the Nasrid era, and with 500 years of history, it is one of Spain's historic universities. Today, it is particularly prized for its languages, but is also a world reference in mathematics, computer science and engineering. Heir to the former Free University of Cordoba, today's University of Cordoba, founded in 1972, has a special department devoted entirely to environmental protection. The University of Málaga maintains links with the University of Seville and boasts an excellent student-business relationship. Although versatile, the University of Almeria boasts a privileged relationship with sport (activities, competitions). The University of Cádiz is particularly sought-after for its medicine and psychology courses, while the University of Jaén boasts outstanding results in computer science, as validated by the prestigious Shanghai ranking, and the University of Huelva, one of the youngest, along with Pablo Olavide, boasts an engineering school based on the La Rábida campus. Then there's the International University of Andalusia (UNIA), renowned for its summer courses and with three campuses: La Rábida, Baeza and Málaga. Every year, Andalusia welcomes almost 10,000 Erasmus students, but the universities of Seville and Granada receive the largest number of students in Europe.
