Spain is fastest aging country in EU, report finds

Madrid, Spain, May 21, 2009 / 13:09 pm

According to a report by the Institute for Family Policy,Spain has lost more than three million young people in less than 30 years, thus achieving the dubious distinction of having the fastest aging population out of all the countries in the EU.
 
According to the Institute’s president, Eduardo Hertfelder, the “dreadful policy” in favor of birth control has had a “catastrophic effect” on the Spanish population, which is severely aging.
 
“More than 3 million young people” have been lost in less than 30 years, he said, such that the Spanish youth population has gone from 10 million in 1981 to only 6.6 million in 2008.  And this drop would have been greater—to almost 4 million—were it not for the boost that has come from young immigrants who have softened this drop,” Hertfelder stressed.
 
The Institute said the current situation is “the logical consequence of the dreadful policy on the family that has been embraced by recent administrations in general and in this government in particular. 

The fact is that "Spain is the EU country that provides the least aid to families, with ridiculous amounts ($33 per month per dependent) that are well below the European average ($172 per month per dependent), and with income caps that are so low that 90% of families cannot even have access to these ridiculous credits, is resulting in increasingly less births and consequently a loss of young people.”