Barcelona has more inhabitants than ten years ago, but fewer children are born there each time. It is one of the paradoxes of the city's current demography: the population remains at historical highs while the number of births continues to decline. In 2025, 11,012 babies were born in the city, 141 fewer than the previous year, a drop of 1.3%. This is a trend that has been with us for many years and is also reflected in the decrease in the birth rate.
The drop, therefore, is not isolated. Barcelona has been registering fewer births for years, to the point that the 11,012 in 2025 is the lowest figure in the historical series since 1900, if 1939 is excluded. And this has a clear demographic consequence: today fewer people are born than die. Specifically, in 2025 Barcelona lost 3,549 inhabitants due to natural balance —the difference between births and deaths—, but gained 11,383 due to migratory and administrative balance.
And the comparison with other large European cities shows that Barcelona is no exception: all share, with more or less intensity, the same downward trend in birth rates. In the European Union, the crude birth rate is around 9 births per 1,000 inhabitants, but the large cities of Southern Europe show particularly low rates, often below 7 or 8 births per 1,000 inhabitants. Barcelona, with 6.4 births per 1,000 inhabitants, is in this low range. Just ten years ago, it registered 8.4.
Catalonia as a whole presents a practically identical rate: 6.65 births per 1,000 inhabitants in 2025, according to provisional data from Idescat. But here too the change compared to a decade ago is even more pronounced: the Catalan rate was 9.47‰.
And behind this decline there is also a change in the way the population of Barcelona has children: increasingly later and, on average, fewer.
Who has children in Barcelona?
City Council data show that the total fertility rate —the average number of children per woman— stood at 0.88 in 2024, compared to 1.16 children per woman in 2015 and 2016. This is an exceptionally low figure that shows the extent to which the average number of children per woman has decreased.
But women not only have fewer children, but they also have them later. The average age of women in Barcelona at the time of having a child was 33.9 years in 2024. And if we talk about the first child, it is at 33.5 years. To put it in context: in 2010, the first child arrived, on average, at 32.5 years.
Women in Barcelona have their first child, on average, at 33.5 years old
However, curiously, this picture is not entirely homogeneous. There are neighborhoods where many more babies are born than in others. For example, if we return to the birth rate (births per 1,000 inhabitants), the highest rates are concentrated in certain areas, such as Ciutat Vella (6.8‰) and Sarrià-Sant Gervasi (8.1‰), but also at the city's extremes, such as Trinitat Vella (10.5‰), Baró de Viver (9‰) and, especially, La Marina del Prat Vermell, which reaches 15.9‰.
The case of La Marina del Prat Vermell is particularly interesting and the City Council relates it to the fact that it is a neighborhood in full development, with a growing housing stock and the arrival of new residents, a context conducive to the formation of new families. Its birth rate is, in fact, more than double the average for Barcelona, which stands at 6.4‰.
The 11,012 babies
Related to the evolution of the migratory balance in Barcelona, the diversity of origins is also reflected among babies. 28% of babies born in Barcelona in 2025 had foreign nationality, compared to 20% in 2016. Among these babies, the most frequent nationalities were Italian (334), Pakistani (287), Colombian (245), French (200) and Peruvian (162).
And in the gender reveal, boys win. Of the 11,012 babies born in 2025, 5,713 were boys and 5,299 were girls. That's 108 boys for every 100 girls, a proportion that is quite in line with what is considered usual in births, around 105 boys for every 100 girls.
In Barcelona, 108 boys are born for every 100 girls
And to finish getting to know these 11,000 babies, we could ask them their name. And although this summer the answer to "And what's your name?" seems to have an unequivocal answer —"My name is Xavier"—, in reality the most common names in Barcelona in 2025 were Júlia, Olivia and Sofia, among girls, and Biel, Nil and Marc, among boys.
Add The New Barcelona Post as your preferred Google source for free
Stay informed with the latest news.
