IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v51y2024i19.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Lowest low fertility in Spain: Insights from the 2018 Spanish Fertility Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Mariona Lozano

    (Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics (CED))

  • Qi Cui

    (London School of Economics and Political Science)

  • Albert Esteve

    (Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics (CED))

  • Ryohei Mogi

    (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

  • Diederik Boertien

    (Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics (CED))

Abstract

Background: Spain has one of the most enduring low levels of fertility in the world, but desired fertility there is still close to two children. Objective: We document recent fertility trends and examine the reasons that women and men provide for not achieving their desired fertility. Methods: We use data from the 2018 Spanish Fertility Survey (14,556 women and 2,619 men). We provide a cohort and age perspective and compare women and men. We use retrospective information and classify the reasons people report for not having (more) children. Results: Estimates on observed fertility, employment, and partnerships show that having a stable partner between the ages of 25 and 35 seems key in the transition to childbearing. Work–family conflicts and insufficient economic resources are the main reasons women and men give for not having their desired number of children. These are followed by partnership reasons (not having a stable partner) and health (infertility). Conclusions: Our findings, although descriptive, shed light on the multiple and age-varying obstacles that prevent women and men from achieving desired levels of fertility. Contribution: The Spanish population indicates that the most important preconditions for having (more) children are sufficient economic resources, stability, and having a partner.

Suggested Citation

  • Mariona Lozano & Qi Cui & Albert Esteve & Ryohei Mogi & Diederik Boertien, 2024. "Lowest low fertility in Spain: Insights from the 2018 Spanish Fertility Survey," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 51(19), pages 625-636.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:51:y:2024:i:19
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2024.51.19
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol51/19/51-19.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2024.51.19?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pau Baizán & Arnstein Aassve & Francesco C. Billari, 2003. "Cohabitation, Marriage, and First Birth: The Interrelationship of Family Formation Events in Spain," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 19(2), pages 147-169, June.
    2. Camarda, Carlo G., 2012. "MortalitySmooth: An R Package for Smoothing Poisson Counts with P-Splines," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 50(i01).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lozano, Mariona & Esteve, Albert & Boertien, Diederik & Mogi, Ryohei & Cui, Qi, 2024. "Lowest low fertility in Spain: insights from the 2018 Spanish Fertility Survey," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 125484, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. María Davia & Nuria Legazpe, 2015. "Educational attainment and maternity in Spain: not only “when” but also “how”," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 871-900, December.
    3. Alessandro Rosina & Romina Fraboni, 2004. "Is marriage losing its centrality in Italy?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 11(6), pages 149-172.
    4. Julia Mikolai & Brienna Perelli-Harris & Ann Berrington, 2018. "The role of education in the intersection of partnership transitions and motherhood in Europe and the United States," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(27), pages 753-794.
    5. Robert Stelter & David de la Croix & Mikko Myrskylä, 2020. "Leaders And Laggards In Life Expectancy Among European Scholars From The Sixteenth To The Early Twentieth Century," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2020024, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    6. Soo-Jung Byoun & Shinwoo Choi & Hye-Young Kim, 2021. "Exploring the Diverse Family Structures in South Korea: Experiences and Perspectives of Nonmartial Cohabitants," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-13, August.
    7. Ahbab Mohammad Fazle Rabbi & Stefano Mazzuco, 2021. "Mortality Forecasting with the Lee–Carter Method: Adjusting for Smoothing and Lifespan Disparity," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 37(1), pages 97-120, March.
    8. Nicoletta Balbo & Francesco C. Billari & Melinda Mills, 2013. "Fertility in Advanced Societies: A Review of Research," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 1-38, February.
    9. Darcy W. Hango & Céline Le Bourdais, 2007. "Early Union Formation in Canada: Links with Education," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 23(3), pages 339-368, October.
    10. Tomáš Sobotka, 2008. "Overview Chapter 6: The diverse faces of the Second Demographic Transition in Europe," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(8), pages 171-224.
    11. Lucia Coppola & Mariachiara Di Cesare, 2008. "How fertility and union stability interact in shaping new family patterns in Italy and Spain," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 18(4), pages 117-144.
    12. José M. Aburto & Alyson A. van Raalte, 2017. "Lifespan dispersion in times of life expectancy fluctuation: the case of Central and Eastern Europe," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2017-018, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    13. Francesca Marchetta & David E. Sahn, 2016. "The Role of Education and Family Background in Marriage, Childbearing, and Labor Market Participation in Senegal," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(2), pages 369-403.
    14. Roberta Rutigliano & Gøsta Esping-Andersen, 2018. "Partnership Choice and Childbearing in Norway and Spain," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 34(3), pages 367-386, August.
    15. Nadja Milewski, 2007. "First child of immigrant workers and their descendants in West Germany," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 17(29), pages 859-896.
    16. Tim Riffe & Sebastian Kluesener & Nikola Sander, 2021. "Editorial to the Special Issue on Demographic Data Visualization: Getting the point across – Reaching the potential of demographic data visualization," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(36), pages 865-878.
    17. Tha�s Garc�a-Pereiro & Roberta Pace, 2016. "Changes On First Union Dynamics: Highlights Of A Comparative Study Between Italy And Spain," RIEDS - Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica - The Italian Journal of Economic, Demographic and Statistical Studies, SIEDS Societa' Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, vol. 70(2), pages 129-140, April-Jun.
    18. Christine Schnor, 2014. "The Effect of Union Status at First Childbirth on Union Stability: Evidence from Eastern and Western Germany," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 30(2), pages 129-160, May.
    19. Juan Manuel Pérez-Salamero González & Marta Regúlez-Castillo & Carlos Vidal-Meliá, 2021. "Differences in Life Expectancy Between Self-Employed Workers and Paid Employees when Retirement Pensioners: Evidence from Spanish Social Security Records," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 37(3), pages 697-725, July.
    20. Marie-Pier Bergeron-Boucher & James E. Oeppen & Vladimir Canudas-Romo & James W. Vaupel, 2017. "Coherent forecasts of mortality with compositional data analysis," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(17), pages 527-566.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    low fertility; Spain; fertility desires;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:51:y:2024:i:19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.