Births in León have decreased by 71% in half a century, the worst figure since 1975

The birth rate in León is going downhill and without brakes. Since 1975, the year in which births began to be counted, there has not been a year with fewer pregnancies than 2023. In fact, the difference in the data between one year and another is chilling.

The León province closed 2023 with 2,173 births, almost a thousand fewer than a decade ago, when 3,044 occurred. But as we go back in time the gap widens: 20 years ago, in 2003, up to 3,313 births were counted. That is, more than 1,200 births difference. It should be noted that these data, collected by the National Institute of Statistics, refer to the mother's usual place of residence at the time of giving birth, so that not all places in the province are taken into account.

Biggest difference in the 20th century

The numbers increase when we move to the 20th century and more specifically after 1991, when four thousand births were exceeded, the lowest figure to date. In 1983 the number exceeded 6,000 and in 1978 it exceeded 7,000. In 1975 there were 7,052 procreations, although in reality the highest number was reached a year later, when 7,349 occurred.

The conclusion is quite clear: León has gone on to register less than one birth for every four born in 1975. Or what is the same: in 48 years there has been a reduction of more than 70%.

The data on the place of registration of the baby, which refers to the place where the birth registration is formalized, is also overwhelming. The first data available is from 1941, at the beginning of the Franco dictatorship and just after the Civil War. At that time there were 11,685 cases, although it was in 1948 when the highest number occurred: 13,822. In 2023, 2,100 were registered, the lowest of all.

Mother's age

If the data is divided by mother's age group, the number of women who gave birth between 35 and 36 stands out above the rest: 676. This is closely followed by the previous range, those who gave birth between 30 and 34, which in León were 658. The third age range that had the most births was 40-44, where up to 253 women did so. One step below were those between 20 and 24, with 139. Finally, the 28 that were found in the scale of 15 and 19 years old or the 13 of 45-40 stand out.