Ambrosio Spinola
05-28-2006, 10:08 AM
How European...
The INE, Spain’s National Statistics Institute has just published some interesting numbers about marriage in Spain.
Certain conclusions from the data are clear. Spanish women are getting married later, and that’s leading to a later age when they are becoming mothers.
The average age for walking down the aisle is now over 30 for the first time for women, and 33 for men. Compare that to the end of the Franco years when the women were 24 and the men 27.
The number of women to start a family over the age of 40 has doubled since 1997.
Why are Spanish women putting off marriage? Some say they are becoming more selfish, and want to enjoy the irresponsibility’s and freedoms of youth for longer, while others have a more serious take on the numbers.
The ever increasing cost of housing could be playing it’s part here, along with the unstable nature of the workplace. And more Spanish women want a career, and despite government initiatives in the area, this creates a conflict between work and the family.
The new numbers from the INE relate to 2004, when there were 216,149 weddings in Spain. Although it’s hard to remember sometimes, Spain remains a Catholic country, and most couples prefer to be parents inside wedlock. Despite that numbers show that more than a quarter of the children born here in 2004, were born outside matrimony.
There has been a slight recovery in the birth rate, now standing at 1.32 children per woman, but most of the recovery is due to immigrants who tend now to have larger families than the Spanish. And the experts say that the numerous Spanish families of the past are now just that, in the past.
Meanwhile those children born here are set to have a happier childhood. The Government has just announced a new National Infancy Plan. An end to corporal punishment and more spending on nursery education, so one in three children will have a local state nursery in three years time.
It’s a welcome move in early education in a country where 800,000 children are still watching the television after ten o’clock at night.
The INE, Spain’s National Statistics Institute has just published some interesting numbers about marriage in Spain.
Certain conclusions from the data are clear. Spanish women are getting married later, and that’s leading to a later age when they are becoming mothers.
The average age for walking down the aisle is now over 30 for the first time for women, and 33 for men. Compare that to the end of the Franco years when the women were 24 and the men 27.
The number of women to start a family over the age of 40 has doubled since 1997.
Why are Spanish women putting off marriage? Some say they are becoming more selfish, and want to enjoy the irresponsibility’s and freedoms of youth for longer, while others have a more serious take on the numbers.
The ever increasing cost of housing could be playing it’s part here, along with the unstable nature of the workplace. And more Spanish women want a career, and despite government initiatives in the area, this creates a conflict between work and the family.
The new numbers from the INE relate to 2004, when there were 216,149 weddings in Spain. Although it’s hard to remember sometimes, Spain remains a Catholic country, and most couples prefer to be parents inside wedlock. Despite that numbers show that more than a quarter of the children born here in 2004, were born outside matrimony.
There has been a slight recovery in the birth rate, now standing at 1.32 children per woman, but most of the recovery is due to immigrants who tend now to have larger families than the Spanish. And the experts say that the numerous Spanish families of the past are now just that, in the past.
Meanwhile those children born here are set to have a happier childhood. The Government has just announced a new National Infancy Plan. An end to corporal punishment and more spending on nursery education, so one in three children will have a local state nursery in three years time.
It’s a welcome move in early education in a country where 800,000 children are still watching the television after ten o’clock at night.