Births rise in Catalonia for the first time in 17 years
In 2025, 54,249 newborns have been born, 0.8% more than the previous year
BarcelonaBirths in Catalonia rose slightly last year after 17 years of decline. In 2025, 28,019 boys and 26,230 girls were born, a total of 54,249 infants, representing an increase of 0.8% compared to 2024, according to provisional data released this morning by the Institute of Statistics of Catalonia, Idescat. This breaks a downward trend of almost two decades, although the increase is so slight that the crude birth rate remains at 6.7 births per 1,000 inhabitants, the same as in 2024. The number of women of childbearing age (15 to 49 years) also increased by 0.5% compared to the previous year.
These positive figures, however, do not yet manage to reverse the fertility indicator, which stands at 1.08 children per woman. To find the maximum recorded in the series, one must also go back to 2008, when the indicator stood at 1.5 children per woman. The age of motherhood also continues to be delayed: the average is 32.8 years, and the average age at the birth of the first child is 31.8 years.
Almost half of the newborns in 2025 – 48.5% – are children of women born in Catalonia, while 46.3% of these new Catalans are children of women born abroad. 5.2% are children of women born in another part of Spain.
However, there are eight Catalan regions where children born to foreign mothers represent half or more of the total: la Segarra (61.1%), la Garrotxa (58.2%), el Barcelonès (56.3%), l’Urgell (54.7%), l’Alt Empordà (53.6%), el Baix Empordà (51.9%), el Solsonès (51.6%) and les Garrigues (50.0%). Regarding municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, the highest percentages are those of l’Hospitalet de Llobregat (69.5%), Santa Coloma de Gramenet (65.8%) and Manresa (60.3%).
Nationality of mothers
Foreign mothers were mainly born in Africa (5,850), South America (4,817), and Asia and Oceania (3,161). In contrast, among mothers of Spanish nationality, 18.1% were also born abroad (6,395), mainly in South America (3,099), North and Central America (1,335), and Africa (1,230).
The fertility rate of foreign women residing in Catalonia is a few tenths higher than the rest, reaching 1.29 children per woman. The average age also varies by place of birth: women of Spanish nationality are mothers, on average, at 33.3 years old, while foreign mothers advance maternity to 30.9 years on average.