In the year 2000 the number of mothers over 50 who gave birth in Spain was barely 20 . In 2022, according to the latest data published this Wednesday by the INE, that figure has skyrocketed to 295. And this, taking into account that last year 67.820 fewer babies were born than at the beginning of this century. Without going that far, in 2021 with just over 7.000 more births than last year, the number of women over 50 who gave birth was 221, so the figure has increased by more than 30%. Desktop Code Image for mobile, amp and app Mobile Code AMP Code Show more APP Code Show more Women who are that age or older at the time of giving birth in 2022 accounted for almost 11% of the total number of children born alive. In order for us to get an idea of what it means, it is enough to see that in 2000, the percentage of mothers aged 40 or over was 2,5%. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's “Age and Fertility” patient guide, “the best reproductive age for a woman is in her early 20s. Fertility gradually declines after the age of 30, especially after the age of 35. However, increasingly, mothers in their 20s and 30s are considered a rare bird. Thus, if in 2000 they accounted for almost 47% of the total, in 2022 it falls to 30%. In other words, less than a third of the women who are mothers in our country are at the age in which the body is biologically designed for it. However, it should be noted that the percentage of the total represented by mothers under 30 increased compared to the previous year (including those under 15). Thus, they have gone from representing 25,6% of all mothers in 2021 to 26,2% in 2022. More pronounced way: according to the latest Eurostat data, from 2020, the percentage of mothers over 40 in the EU has more than doubled between 2001 and 2020, from 2,4% in 2001 to 5,5% in 2020. However, in that year Spain was already the one that registered the highest data on the continent (10,2% of all live births), followed by Italy (8,9%), Greece (8,4%), Ireland ( 7,9%) and Portugal (7,8%). At the opposite extreme, the lowest proportion of mothers aged 40+ is found in Romania and Slovakia (both 3,2%). Desktop Code Image for mobile, amp and app Mobile Code AMP Code Show more APP Code Why postpone maternity? According to the latest Fertility Survey by the INE, 42% of women residing in Spain between the ages of 18 and 55 have had their first child later than they think. On average, the delay rises to 5,2 years. By age, the highest percentages of women who have delayed childbearing compared to the age they would prefer are among women between 40 and 44 years of age (51,7%) and between 35 and 39 years of age (46,9%).
