Demographic trends
Spain experienced the traditional preindustrial pattern of high birth and death rates throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, but both began to decline shortly after 1900. The slow but continuous fall of birth rates stalled during the 20 years after the Spanish Civil War, when the Franco regime (1939–75) followed policies that encouraged large families. In the late 1960s the decline resumed. The low birth rate, which was especially marked among young women, contributed to a rate of natural increase that was near zero at the end of the 20th century, though in the beginning of the 21st century there was an upturn fuelled by the birth rate among the immigrant population.
Death rates declined steadily after 1940, although they rose slightly during the 1990s as the population aged. However, life expectancy in Spain increased dramatically, and by the end of the 20th century it was among the highest in the world. The greatest improvement was in the area of infant mortality. The striking overall change was a result of the higher standard of living made possible by the economic “miracle” of the 1960s and by the general availability of high-quality medical care through the government-sponsored system.
By the 1990s Spain’s major demographic indicators were similar to those of other industrialized countries of western Europe. As birth rates and death rates declined and life expectancy increased, the Spanish population aged significantly during the final decades of the 20th century, posing a growing challenge to the Spanish economy and society.
The Spanish population grew rapidly in the 30 years after the Civil War, in part because the death rate fell more quickly than the birth rate but also because of changes in marriage patterns. In the years immediately after the war, economic hardship discouraged people from marrying, and the average age at first marriage rose. By the mid-1940s, however, the percentage of those who married grew significantly (especially among women), reaching its highest level between 1955 and 1960 and remaining high until the mid-1970s, when it began to decline markedly. Likewise the average age at first marriage decreased until the 1990s, when it began climbing again. By the end of the 20th century the average age of first marriage for women had risen again (to between 25 to 29), and the average age at which women had their first child was about 30.
Beginning in the 1970s, Spaniards also began to have fewer children, and at the turn of the 21st century the total fertility rate was one of the lowest in Europe and well below the rate of replacement. The size of the average household also declined during this period, and the number of Spaniards living in traditional households, composed of a married couple and their children, also dropped.