Catalonia's under-16 population falls below 15% for first time since 2001

Children under 16 now make up less than 15% of Catalonia’s population, the lowest share since 2001. 

According to the latest figures from the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (Idescat), a total of 1.18 million residents are under 16, representing just 14.9% of the population.

This is the lowest percentage since 2001, when the child population dropped to 13.8% due to declining birth rates at the end of the 20th century.

The proportion rose again in the early 2000s thanks to a surge in immigration, but it has been gradually falling again since 2021.

Ahead of new birth statistics set to be released this Friday by Idescat, current data show that the birth rate in Catalonia has dropped by 24.3% over the last decade.

At the same time, for the first time ever, people over the age of 65 now represent 20% of the population.

This shift in Catalonia’s population pyramid is the result of sustained declines in birth rates combined with the ageing of the baby boomer generation.

Mariona Lozano, a researcher at the Centre for Demographic Studies (CED), warns that birth rates "will remain low" due to job insecurity, relationship instability, and a "lack of public support" for work-life balance.

Even so, Lozano is optimistic about how population ageing might impact the sustainability of the public welfare system.

Record low fertility rate

Fertility rates in Catalonia continue to hit historic lows, with an average of 1.08 children per woman in 2024, the lowest figure since records began in 1975, according to provisional data from the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (Idescat).

The figure is a result of an increase in population combined with a drop in births, though less steep than in recent years.

In 2024, 53,793 babies were born in Catalonia, a 0.8% decrease compared to 2023.

This is fewer births than the previous low recorded in 1995 – a level not seen since the 1950s

However, birth rates haven’t fallen everywhere: in fact, 17 counties in Catalonia saw more births in 2024 than in 2023.

The total fertility rate has trended downwards from a peak of 1.53 in 2008 to reach 1.08 in 2024.

Catalonia – and Spain as a whole – now have some of the lowest fertility rates in the world. According to World Bank data (2023), the global average is 2.2 children per woman. Spain ranks as the 11th lowest in the world, with a rate of 1.1 in 2023.

35.5% of babies born to foreign mothers

Babies born to foreign mothers accounted for 35.5% of all live births in 2024, up from 34.8% in 2023. That amounts to 19,070 newborns. Births to Spanish mothers declined by 1.9%, totaling 34,723 babies.

Foreign mothers who gave birth in 2024 were, on average, 2.4 years younger than Spanish mothers. The average age at childbirth was 30.8 years for foreign mothers and 33.2 years for Spanish mothers.

The most common nationality of foreign-born mothers in 2024 was Moroccan (4,404 births), accounting for 8.2% of all births in Catalonia and 23.1% of births to foreign mothers.

Colombian mothers followed (1,446 births), then Pakistani (1,349), Honduran (890), and Peruvian mothers (781).

Sofia and Martí were Catalonia's most popular baby names in 2024, both topping the ranking for the first time.