Spain is increasingly becoming a pet country. And less about kids. This is reflected with surprising clarity by statistics showing that, after years of birth rates, it is much easier to find dogs and cats in Spanish homes today than babies. Lately World He did the math to find out exactly what the ratio was, and it turns out there are already six pets for every little kid under the age of four. No matter how intriguing the difference, the data is interesting because it tells us about two important issues regarding the future of the country: demographic challenges and social changes.

What do the numbers tell us?

3.7% of the population. In Spain today, the youngest children under the age of four represent this. INE estimates that by 2022 there will be 1.8 million people registered in this age group in the country, aged zero to four. The figure is notable for several reasons. Firstly, because it represents a very small portion of the total census, only 3.8%. Secondly, because it presents a very different picture than fifteen years ago. In 2011, there were almost 2.5 million children under the age of four in Spain; This corresponded to 5.2% of the entire population.

behind in fertility. The data from Spain is not only alarming when analyzed from a historical approach. They are also not doing very well in the light of the European context, which is something Eurostat allows us to do. Their table shows that in 2022, Spain’s fertility rate (the indicator showing the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime) is 1.16, well below the EU average of 1.46 and coming from neighboring countries such as Portugal. (1.43), France (1.79) or Italy (1.24). Overall, the Hispanic birth rate has fallen by almost 40% in fifteen years.

Don’t say baby, say pet. The scenario is different when we talk about pets. At least if we stick to the data of REIAC, the Spanish Network for the Identification of Domestic Animals. The last global census in 2023 mentions approximately 10.2 million dogs, 967,000 cats and 52,000 ferrets. Data for the autonomous community are slightly older and include almost 10.5 million of these three domestic animal species; The vast majority of them (87.8%) are dogs. These are the figures on which the analysis is based. World We estimate that there are approximately six pets for every young child in Spanish households.

The land of pets. REIAC data offers a clue. But that’s not the only thing. The census is based on microchip-registered pets, an ID required by the Animal Welfare Act for certain pets, including dogs and cats. But there are other sources that estimate the total pet population spread across Spain is much higher.

Statista estimated there would be only 5.9 million cats in 2022. And his work also talks about “pets.” The feed manufacturers association ANFAC speaks of more than 30 million pets overall: 9.3 million dogs, 5.8 million cats, 7.8 million fish, 5 million birds, 1.5 reptiles and many other small mammals. If these figures are taken into account, the disproportion between pets and children in Spain would be even greater. INE estimates that the population under 15 in Spain barely exceeds 6.5 million.

Not an autonomous community. REIAC also allows you to go into detail for each autonomous community and returns the same result in all of them: There is no area with more young children than pets registered with chips. Without exception. In Madrid, for example, the REIAC counts just under a million dogs, cats and ferrets, compared to 275,100 children under the age of four recorded by the INE. In Andalusia, the number of pets in the REIAC is more than 2.2 million; This number far exceeds the 345,500 children who have not yet blown out five candles.

In 43 percent of houses. There are more clues about the weight reached by pets in Spain. Some studies say that 43% of households have a pet, especially dogs and cats, with almost half of Spaniards living with a pet and a large percentage seeing them as another member of the family. In practice, these percentages mean a large business carrying billions of euros a year. And with an upward evolution too. ANFAAC data shows growth in all business segments between 2022 and 2023: dogs, cats, dry and wet food, and snacks.

Spain is not a unique case. In South Korea, there are companies stopping production of strollers to focus solely on those designed for dogs, and in China, where urban families are starting to have more pets than children, the industry’s forecasts are equally positive; annual growth rates are above 2017. 8% in the feed industry and more than the juicy bill forecasts of tens of millions of dollars by 2030.

Beyond numbers and percentages. If percentages are interesting, it is not because of their intrinsic value but because of what they tell us about society and its changes. The decline in birth rates in Spain is largely hidden behind the disproportion between pets and children in Spanish homes, as in other countries; this rate reached a new historical low of 322,100 in 2023.

For reference, the number of births exceeded 401,000 in the early 90s, but reached almost 680,000 in the 1970s. Beyond the social and cultural changes affecting motherhood and fatherhood, there are also economic factors: A significant percentage of women who want to become mothers, 11%, are not mothers or choose to postpone their decision due to work or family compromise. This also affects the number of children.

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