08 December, 2014

By VIVA Team

Despite being a great place in which to raise a family, Spain has the lowest percentage of youngsters in the world

There is now a higher proportion of young people aged between 10 and 24 on the planet than ever before, but the population of Spain is one of the oldest in the world.

A recent State of the World Population 2014 study by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has revealed that there are 1.8 billion ‘young people’ – which is one quarter of the entire global population…

Further, the report states that most people alive today have yet to reach the age of 30. So if you belong in that lower age bracket, then perhaps consider a move to Spain, where you will be in the minority.

Along with Japan and Slovenia, Spain has the lowest percentage of youngsters on the planet, with just 14 per cent – or 6.7 million – of people living in Spain aged between 10 and 24.

Crucially, the study does not take into account nationality, meaning thousands of Spaniards who have emigrated elsewhere in Europe in search of work have not been counted.

However, whether they return or not, the figures are stark – Spain’s population is ageing as people live longer and the traditional big Catholic family shrinks.

There are silver linings to all this, though. For instance, the UNFPA study found that the trend towards a younger population is starker in the world’s poorest countries. “In the world’s 48 least-developed countries, most people are children (under age 18) or adolescents (aged 10 to 19).”

The report also analysed other factors aimed at determining the health of a nation. In most categories, Spain performed admirably, scoring highly in terms of maternal and newborn health, sexual and reproductive health, life expectancy and fertility.

Spain’s mortality ratio – which records the number of deaths per 100,000 live births – was just four in 2013, which makes Spain one of the best countries in the world in which to give birth.

In terms of education, Spain has the highest enrolment figures in the world, scoring 100 per cent for boys and girls of primary school age, and dropping only slightly in the secondary-school age group – 96 per cent for girls and 95 per cent for boys.

This data confirms what many British expats have known for a long while – Spain is an ideal country in which to raise a family, even if current economic conditions are not overly favourable for the age group just about to start a career.