Here's a fascinating article in the The Christian Science Monitor about a serious problem that Spain like Germany and Italy are facing: falling birth rates.

My family was just discussing this phenom last week! Thanks for sharing the article!

jejej- which is also one of the reasons they've recently changed the Codigo Civil- to bring back some of the Spanish kids born to Spaniards outside of Spain, trying to get them to go back- more youth, and hopefully setteling and having kids there!

Well, personally I think there are other things also important right now: the price of the houses and the bad quality of jobs (low salaries, long journeys and the unemployment menace) make the couples to leave parent's home very old, and with the high mortage people have babies much more later and they don't have time to take care of children....I don't know if this is the same in other European countries.
Of course there's also a lot of people that doesn't want to have children.

I agree with Miguelito. Yes, there has been a lot of sexual freedom expressed over the years in Spain, but I would be hesitant to identify it as the only reason for a low birthrate.

As Miguelito has stated, the prices of houses has skyrocketed over the past 5 years. I am astounded to see that a 20 square meter flat in a not-so-nice section of Madrid gets listed for 100,000 €. For the average American, perhaps that is not so bad for living in a Capital city, but remember the average salary here is also about half of what it is in the States.

Young couples struggle to buy a house here, saving for years and then only able to afford something modest and small. I am befuddled as to how they can do it. How can they afford the house, the car, the daily living expenses...and then a kid to boot?!

Unless the goverment does something radical and soon to change the direction of the construction and housing industry, it can continue to count on a low birth rate for years to come.

Another thought has also come to mind...while the birthrate is low, I wonder if any consideration is given to the number of Spanish couples that adopt children. I am not familiar with the statistics, so I rely on my not so scientific approach of what appears to be... I see more cross cultural adoptive families here (African, Asian, South American, Indian, etc) than I ever recall seeing on an average day in the States...at least in Philadelphia. Just my humble observation.

I agree with what have been said in the previous as regards the reasons for the low birth rate in Spain. I think it has much more to do with economic issues than with a defiance to the old patriarchal system.
I am a 28-year-old woman, with a steady relationship and I am more than willing to get married and have babies, just as my partner is. The problem is that we do not have steady jobs and in our current situation, it would not be responsible to have a child. It is not that we aspire to be millonaires, we just want a nice house, money to pay the bills and live without problems, just as our parents have done. It turns out it is much more difficult now due to the job situation...Mine/ours is not an isolated case, most of the people I know is, unfortunately, on the same boat.
Seeing so many people in the same case, makes me think that it is not that my generation is rebelling against the old established order or the traditional role of woman as mother and wife, we do not have babies because we do not have the means to bring them up. I guess there may be some feminists who in an attempt to revindicate the rights of their mothers or grandmothers decide to go for a radical change in lifestyle...but I bet they are a minority and I am stil to meet one.
I have worked hard for my career for the last 10 years, I have enjoyed my freedom in a way women of my age 20 years ago could not do and I have had more opportunities than most people have, so I consider than being a woman has not hindered me in any way (it may be as some crazy feminist told me some time ago that I have patriarchy so internalized that I do not realize it, WHATEVER!)Now, as a woman, I want to be a wife and a mother because I happen to have found the perfect person to share my life with...too bad the economic situation of this country and the working conditions for people in the late 20s truly sucks. They always look for the strangest reasons to justify this sad phenomenon...too bad these very true reasons go against the interest of those leading the economy...

Jonsoniana,
The article underscores exactly what you have shared with us in your thread:
The circumstances you described are also prevalent in other industrialized nations as well. Here in the U.S. the same thing has happened. When I was a young woman in my 20's it was nearly impossible for a young couple to make it on just one salary, this was in the early 1980's. Women's salaries lagged dearly behind that of men back then, and to some extent this still exists today in certain regions of the country and in certain industries. Likewise women in child bearing years are still being discriminated for promotions compared to men. The Family Medical Leave Act has tried to adddress this by allowing both the husband and wife to stay home with a newborn. Generally it's the wife that stays home because her salary is smaller.