Overview
- Provisional INE data show 321,164 births in 2025, up 1% year over year, marking the first national rise since 2014, though statisticians caution the figures could change when finalized.
- Deaths reached 446,982 in 2025, leaving a negative natural change of 122,167 people and extending Spain’s run of population losses to nine straight years.
- Delayed parenthood continues to reshape fertility: births to mothers aged 40 or older rose to 10.4% of the total, and births to women 50+ climbed to 316, nearly quadruple the 2013 count.
- Regional gaps are stark: Madrid led the birth increase (+3.3%) and, with Murcia, Melilla and Ceuta, posted positive natural growth, while Galicia recorded the worst balance with 19,894 more deaths than births.
- The Spanish update lands within a global slide in natality—the world crude birth rate has halved since 1960—as UNFPA highlights structural barriers to having children and points to childcare, equal leave, gender-equality policies and targeted financial support as effective levers.