The Demographic Challenges of Spain

The demographic crisis is already a commonplace in Spain, treated as a matter of political urgency and even apocalyptic drama. The paradox is that most of this diagnosis lacks any foundation beyond a moralist, sensationalist clamor based on the most primary indicators of natality or changes in the population pyramid. The analysts who preach a ‘demographic suicide’ or ‘demographic winter’ are not demographers, but propagandists, with an ancient, timeless message that is now being collected and magnified by a media thirsty for immediate impact. This presentation offers a weighted and comprehensive examination of the demographic situation of Spain, its causes and its foreseeable evolution, with special attention to the longitudinal perspective of generational life cycles. As we will see, rigorous demographic analysis not only nuances the prevailing alarmism but actually refutes it, to reveal an undoubtedly positive balance of what has been achieved by the Spanish population up to the present day.