La constitución familiar en España explores current and past trends in family formation in Spain, supplemented by a comparative analysis with other industrialized countries. Knowing how new families come to be formed is essential to an understanding of a society’s geographical dynamics. The book’s team of authors address such relevant inputs to these dynamics as the transition to adult life, the binding forces within coupledom, fertility by birth order (an indicator keenly sensitive to changes in reproductive behavior during a women’s fertile life), the relationship between family and housing accommodation or the break-up of marriage.

The book opens with an exposition of the four explanations in common currency regarding the family formation process, which also serve as a connecting thread. The second chapter looks at changing patterns of young people’s emancipation and how they impact on the family grouping. This is followed in chapter three by a statistical analysis that provides a descriptive overview of the make-up of today’s couples by reference to age, educational level, place of birth and migratory context. The fourth chapter examines fertility issues from a historical perspective, while the fifth analyzes the relationship between family formation and access to housing, which is viewed as a critical determinant.

The second last chapter turns to the question of divorce, considering the immediate consequences of this transformation of the family unit for new family formation. Finally the seventh chapter offers an ample array of statistical indicators concerning the family in Spain and its provincial distribution which serve to fill out the information that has gone before.

This publication offers a rigorous scientific analysis to set against the numerous pronouncements of an ideological nature that frequently surround the institution of the family, providing a comprehensive overview of its current situation in Spain for readers with an interest in demography and social sciences.