The fertility gap. That is the big problem for experts. That you want to have children and you can't; or that you have less than you would like. And in Spain, almost 35% of women with children have fewer children than they would like, according to the advance results of the fertility survey published this Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics. A figure that remains quite stable compared to 2018 (only five tenths less), the last time this survey was carried out. The figures depict a country in which vital transitions are being delayed. The age at which to emancipate; to which the right partner is found; where you get a good job. “The conditions that are considered optimal for having children arrive very late,” explains Mariona Lozano, a demographer at the Center for Demographic Studies of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. So the vast majority would prefer to have two children (seven out of 10 women), but on average they have 1.1, according to the latest available data, from 2024.
This is the fifth edition of this survey, after those carried out in 1977, 1985, 1999 and 2018. The research has focused on the population group between 18 and 55 years old —both women and men—, and the objective is to identify the determining factors of fertility levels, which in Spain has been low for years.
The survey allows several photographs to be taken that portray the country. First, that of the barriers that prevent reproductive desires from being fulfilled. With the lack of conciliation and work and economic reasons at the forefront at the critical ages to have children. Second, that of women who do not want to have children: they are already 15.5% of the total, three points more than in 2018. But the figure skyrockets and rises by 127% in the age group of 35 to 39 years, especially critical because from the mid-thirties fertility drops (there are 16.5% who do not want children). Third, the growing importance of assisted reproduction, in a country that increasingly delays the age at which procreation occurs. One in 10 women who have ever sought pregnancy has resorted to assisted reproduction treatment.
“It's like a domino,” exemplifies Lozano. The first card, if you want to be a mother or not. But there are many more. “Women are increasingly more educated, many have higher education, more than men, and that makes them want to develop their professional careers before becoming mothers.” So many links in the same chain must be linked until you decide to have children. “We no longer have them with the first person we pair with, but rather we have several, and this puts us in our late twenties or early thirties,” he explains. “The problem is that job stability often does not come until after 35, when problems often appear with having a stable partner,” continues the demographer. "But when we look at women who seem to have met all the milestones, have a partner and a job, there are problems such as residential insecurity and access to housing, and there are couples who do not have flexible hours and there are conciliation problems."
As things stand, the age at which people have children is increasingly delayed. In 2024, the first one reached, on average, 31.5 years old. “One of the latest in Europe,” continues Lozano, who says that in Spain there are “several records.” Like that of low fertility. The 1.1 children per woman is “one of the lowest in the world, behind Korea or Japan,” and it is the country, he adds, “where this rate has been low for the longest time.” Various data from the survey published this Tuesday confirm this delay in motherhood. 24% of women aged 40 to 44 without children want to have them in the next three years; the same as 6% of those between 45 and 49 years old. And the fertility gap is clearly seen in the responses of women aged 50 and older without children: 45% would have wanted to have them. Just like almost half of those between 45 and 49 years old. “When this desire is frustrated, it causes a lot of life dissatisfaction, especially as we age,” says Elisa Chuliá, professor of Sociology at UNED and researcher at Funcas.
This sociologist mentions the “opportunity cost” of being a mother as another key to analyzing the results of this survey. It indicates that university students are the ones who delay the decision to have children the most. According to data published this Tuesday by the INE, half of women with higher education do not have children, compared to 36% with education up to the third year of ESO (although it is important to keep in mind that there are more and more women with a university degree, and fewer with less training). So the decision is being delayed. So much so that, according to the survey data, 6% of women under 56 years of age – this is an average that includes both those who have sought pregnancy and those who have not – have ever undergone some assisted reproduction treatment, 12% more than in 2018. Something that affects older women more.
"We have started to consider these costs as a very priority. Women who have children suffer delays in their promotions, and if they do not suffer them, it is at the cost of giving their all in. It is difficult for them to maintain their careers, their professional trajectories, without children representing a delay in the achievement of certain professional objectives," explains Chuliá. Among women who have had fewer children than desired, the main reason is work or conciliation reasons (27.1%), followed by health reasons (19.1%), economic reasons (13.9%) and not having had the right partner (9.9%). 12.7% claimed that they wanted to have more children. The percentage varies depending on the age group studied, but above 35, the fundamental reason is conciliation.
