Birth rate plummets to historic low in Malaga province, according to latest figures

New data published on Thursday (17 August) by Spain's National Statistics Institute revealed just 5,678 babies were born in the province between January and June this year, some 192 fewer than in the same period in 2022 and the lowest figure recorded during a first half of the year since statistics have become available. The year-on-year decline in percentage terms is 3.3%, the sharpest since 2018, and higher than the national average fall of 2.5%.

The decline in the birth rate can be better understood by adding data. For example, if we compare the daily average number of children born, which in the first half of the year stood at 31.2 in Malaga. Only a year earlier, in 2022, that average was close to 33, and in 2021 it was slightly above 34. In four of the first six months of this year, the number of births registered in the province fell below one thousand, the data also showed.

The birth crisis, although long-standing, has worsened since the pandemic. In the first half of this year, 10.9% fewer children were born than in the same period of 2019.

Andalucía registered 5,079 births last June, bringing the cumulative figure for the first half of the year to 29,918, down 1.7% compared to the same period in 2022. The figure for this six-month period in Andalucía in 2023 is 11.13% lower compared to the same period in 2019.

Nationally, there were 155,629 births in the first half of the year, 2.5% less compared to the same period in 2022.

The data also showed a rise in the age of maternity. Four out of every ten children born in the first half of the year in Malaga had a mother who had already reached the age of 35. In contrast, the number of teenage mothers continued to fall steadily: between January and June this year, 112 births were recorded whose mother was aged between 15 and 19, compared to 144 in the same period in 2022. No woman became a mother under the age of 15, which happened twice in the first half of last year.

There is also positive news in the demographic news published by the INE today: mortality fell during the first months of the year. In the case of deaths, estimates are made on a weekly basis and go up to week 30 of the year, i.e. up to 22 July. In this period, 8,531 people died in Malaga, 8.8% fewer than in the same period last year. The downward trend in mortality, which began last year after two years of soaring in the wake of the pandemic, continues.

Despite the decline, mortality is at historically high levels. A comparison of deaths in the first half of this year in Malaga with those of the same period in 2019 shows an increase of 13%. This is due to an ageing population, which combined with the fall in birth rate, leads to more people dying than those who are born.

A total of 255,641 people died in Spain, with 7,328 dying in the past week, 7.77% less than in the same period in 2022 and 2.48% more than in the same weeks in 2019, according to the data.