Spain recorded in 2025 the first increase in the number of births in a decade, by 1%, with 321,164 children born, 3,159 more than in 2024, according to the Monthly Birth Estimate published on Wednesday by the INE.
Although this is the first upturn in ten years, its magnitude needs to be contextualized: it is a slight increase considering that compared to 2015, 99,126 fewer children are born in Spain each year.
Therefore, we will have to wait for the INE to publish the final data for 2025 and see the evolution of this year to determine if there has indeed been a change in the trend of births in the country.
Despite the increase in births, the number of deaths is growing twice as fast, hence the natural increase (the difference between both groups) is worsening. Specifically, in 2025, 446,982 deaths occurred in the country, a 2.5% increase compared to the previous year, resulting in a negative natural increase of -122,167 people. This means that if Spain were to close today with no migratory movements (neither inflow nor outflow of population), based on the natural dynamics of births and deaths, the country would systematically lose population.
The evolution of births in recent years in the country has been parallel to a delay in the age of motherhood. In relative terms, while in 2015, 7.8% of births were from mothers aged 40 or older, in 2025, this percentage increased to 10.4%.
By autonomous communities, the largest increases in the number of births in 2025 were recorded in the Community of Madrid (3.3%) and the Basque Country (3.0%); while the largest decreases were in the autonomous cities of Melilla (-10.1%) and Ceuta (-6.6%), and in the Balearic Islands (-2.6%).
Regarding deaths, the largest increases compared to 2024 were in the autonomous cities of Ceuta (16.5%) and Melilla (15.2%), and in the Canary Islands (5.9%). The largest decrease was recorded in La Rioja (-3.7%).