Male fertility falls to its lowest level in 50 years
According to a study on male fertility in Spain recently published by the UAB Centre for Demographic Studies in the journal Perspectives Demogràfiques, the fall in male fertility surpasses that of women: men have fallen to an all time low in 50 years, with 1.06 children per man, while women stand at 1.18. The study analyses a reality which until now had gone unnoticed.
The results of the study on male fertility, entitled "I ells què? La fecunditat masculina a Espanya" — conducted by Centre for Demographic Studies (CED) researcher and UAB Sociology lecturer Pau Miret and published today — indicate that fertility in the 21st century, with a similar evolution in both genders, demonstrates a greater fall among men.
From 1976 to 1998, the results of the indicators of women of childbearing age and men of the same age range did not vary. The Synthetic Fertility Index (SFI) plunged among men and women alike: from 2.8 children (in the mid-1970s) to 1.1 (at the end of the 1990s). However, the start of the new century brought with it a change in scenario: male fertility is clearly lower than female fertility, a reality that went unnoticed given that only indicators for women were being published.
Thus, it can now be seen how male fertility in the 21st century has fallen lower than female fertility: while there was a maximum in 2008 of 1.5 children per woman, the same value was 1.3 in men, until reaching a 50-year low in 2021 at 1.06 children per man and 1.18 per woman.
Another conclusion that stands out in the study is the fact that education level is not what determines the differences in fertility, but rather access to the labour market.
And another conclusion from this study is the imbalance between genders, with a greater amount of men when compared to women of childbearing age. The model in which men seek women two or three years younger than them is maintained, leaving fewer women available thanks to the fall in birth rates in the second half of the 1970s.
The fall in fertility in Spain is one of the demographic phenomena that more attention has attracted in the past few years due to the speed, intensity and relevance with which it has occurred. At the same time, fertility studies have only focused on women, considering it irrelevant to study what was happening with men. The UAB's CED has now introduced the male factor into the fertility analysis through a male SFI and has also focused on the characteristics of men becoming fathers for the first time.
What makes male fertility rise or fall?
According to researchers, a man with a permanent contract is twice as likely to have a first child than someone unemployed: among men, it is not the educational level that determines differences in fertility; it is access to the labour market. The greater the link to paid employment, the greater the fertility. In other words, difficulties in entering the labour market lead to exclusion from reproduciton. Therefore, "to become a father it is not enough to have a job, it must be a stable job; in other words, fighting to get rid of job insecurity would promote having children and therefore, a rise in the birth rate", says lead author of the study Pau Miret.
This study forms part of the research on work within and outside the home according to genders, entitled "Temps de feina en l’ocupació i a la llar: desestandardització i convergència de gènere", co-funded by the R&D projects of the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation.
Article in PERSPECTIVES DEMOGRÀFIQUES, January 2023: “I ells què? La fecunditat masculina a Espanya”. Author: Pau Miret. CED. UAB.