Birth rate drops and first-time mothers' age increases

SPAIN - The country's birth rate showed a steady increase for a decade, until 2009, when it began to come down, also steadily. The Instituto Nacional deEstadística (INE), or National Statistics Institute's latest figures confirm the trend: there were a total of 235,373 births registered in 2010, 3.2% less than the previous year. This is the result of a combination of a decrease in fecundity and a a progressive lowering of the age of fertility in women. The  average age of children per woman is down to 1.38, according to the INE. Women who live in Spain>
are delaying the age at which they have their first child, which averages 31.12, an age that topped out historically over the first six monthsof last year. There were 47,305 births from foreign women in Spain, 20.1% of the total and almost identical to this same statistic for 2009 (20.2%). The difference between the number of births against deaths (known in Spanish as saldo vegetativo, or 'vegetative balance') is 35,734 people against 44,184 for the same period (first half of the year) as 2009. Life expectancy is up compared to 2009: 78.66 years for men and 84.65 for women. (Prospero Note: Oh, goody!)