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The births statistic gathers information on the births occurring in Spain each year. The data are collected in a document known as the Statistical Birth Bulletin.
As of October 2015, the INE receives files from the Ministry of Justice with information on those births registered by their parents from the hospital thanks to the ANDES service. In those registrations that are made in person directly at the Civil Registry, the data is collected in a document called the Statistical Birth Bulletin. This document is completed by the parents, relatives or persons required by law to declare the birth or, failing that, by the person in charge of the civil registry. The civil registry in which the birth is registered, fills in the data related to the registration of each born.
The births statistic provides disaggregated information at both the national level and that of the autonomous communities, provinces, capitals and towns.
It includes all childbirths that occur in Spain, regardless of whether they are resident or non-resident population
The basic statistical unit is the birth
The population subject to statistical study is all mothers who have given birth in Spain
The statistic covers the whole of the national territory. Disaggregated data at the level of the Autonomous Community, provinces, capitals and municipalities
The statistic is carried out annually There are results available from 1900 until 2023.
1975
The unit of measure is births occurring in the reference period
The data refer to the calendar year covered by the statistic, regardless of whether the data is published by month of occurrence of births
Data referred to the period: Anual A: 2024
The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. The National Statistical Plan 2009-2012 was approved by the Royal Decree 1663/2008. It contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15 December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024. (Statistics of the State Administration).
Collaboration agreements with the Autonomous Communities for the preparation of Natural Population Movement statistics
This is performed in collaboration with the Autonomous Communities
The Statistical Law No. 12/1989 specifies that the INE cannot publish, or make otherwise available, individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society
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The advance release calendar that shows the precise release dates for the coming year is disseminated in the last quarter of each year.
The calendar is disseminated on the INEs Internet website (Publications Calendar)
The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website (www.ine.es/en) almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in the European Statistics Code of Practice
The definitive results corresponding to year t are published during the last quarter of year t+1, along with the micro-data files from which they are obtained.
The advanced results are disseminated on a monthly basis by means of the following statistical operations:
• Monthly births estimates
The results of the statistical operations are normally disseminated by using press releases that can be accessed via both the corresponding menu and the Press Releases Section in the web
The results of this statistic are disseminated through the INE website and some of the results are reflected in publications such as the Statistical Yearbook, Cifras INE [INE Figures], Spain in Figures, etc.
INEbase is the system the INE uses to store statistical information on the Internet. It contains all the information the INE produces in electronic formats. The primary organisation of the information follows the theme-based classification of the Inventory of Statistical Operations of the State General Administration . The basic unit of INEbase is the statistical operation, defined as the set of activities that lead to obtaining statistical results on a determined sector or subject based on the individually collected data. Also included in the scope of this definition are synthesis preparation.
All information relating to this statistic (results, methodology, questionnaires, etc.) can be found at:
The definitive data contain detailed tables for the different variables. They can be found at:
The definitive data for birth rate and fertility indicators provide information at the national, autonomous community and province level with greater disaggregation of variables. They can be found at:
Microdata files are available for births, deliveries and Late Fetal Deaths. You can access and download the microdata files of these statistics. These files are made anonymous for statistical confidentiality.
No information is provided on the following variables:
- First name, surname, identity document, domicile of the parents
- First name, surname, of the newborn
- Data on registration of the births in the civil registry
- Day variable on all dates
- Codes of municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants. The size of the municipality is provided
- Codes of countries with lower frequency than that established
- Causes of death of stillbirths or live births and deaths before the age of 24 hours of life
The information can be found at:
Interested users may request specific use of information through the INE Information Area, carried out while preserving the confidentiality of data and by signing the corresponding agreement or document.
See:
A detailed description can be found at:
https://www.ine.es/en/metodologia/t20/t2030301_en.pdf
https://www.ine.es/en/metodologia/t20/metodologia_idb_en.pdf
Sections 10.6 to 17 of this document are considered the user-oriented quality report for this operation
Quality assurance framework for the INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 16 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.
The Statistical Birth Bulletin changed its format and content on 1 January 2007. In this new Bulletin the format was modified to adapt it to the recording techniques using optical character recognition (OCR). In addition, changes were made to its content. The objectives and modifications were the following:
1.- Adapt the collection of information to new Information and Communication technologies. To do this, optical character recognition (OCR) was implemented to record the information, and the new Bulletin was designed with the same purpose.
2.-. New questions were included concerning whether the delivery was by caesarean section, the education level of the parents, the identity card number (D.N.I., passport, N.I.E.) of the parents, place of birth of the parents and the previous child, the cohabitation situation of the mother, the nationality of the previous child and the children born in the current birth, performance of autopsy and if the baby died before or during birth for children stillborn or who live less than 24 hours, etc.
3.- The content and way of asking some questions was modified in order to make them easier to understand for respondents.
4.- The codification of the variables was removed.
Likewise, exhaustive checks are carried out at all stages of the statistical process from the recording of information until its publication. Special emphasis is given to check that the values of the variables are valid, that there are no inconsistencies between the information we receive for each birth and that we receive all births that occurred in Spain in the reference period for the data
The compulsory nature of birth registration guarantees a good coverage of birth statistics. Likewise, the reliability of the information provided by the bulletins is very high thanks to the fact that the errors and lack of response that are detected in the variables of the bulletin are contrasted with the information that the Ministry of Justice provides us in the computerized civil registries.
Information of births is used by other units of the INE, such as:
Inhabitants Register. Birth files serve as the basis for the City Councils to update their Municipal Register of Inhabitants by registering births
Health Statistics, for the development of the Death Statistic according to cause of death in the part referring to stillbirths and live births who die before the first 24 hours of life.
Demographic Indicators, for the development of the indicators of birth, fertility, etc.
Demographic projections, to calculate the figures of the future population
National agencies
Based on the Resolution of 7 February 2005, of the Under-Secretariat, which provides for the publication of the management delegation of the Secretary of State for Justice to the National Statistics Institute concerning the transmission of computerised data relating to the registration of births, marriages and deaths made in the Civil Registers, the Secretary of State for Justice and the National Statistics Institute have signed, dated 13 October 2004, an agreement which entrusts the latter, on a transitional basis until the end of the
process of computerisation of all Civil Registers, the transmission of computerised data relating to the registration of births, marriages and deaths made in the Civil Registers. The National Statistics Institute, at the request of the Directorate General for Registers and Notaries, may facilitate the mass transmission
of data of public utility to public bodies that have an interest in them.
International agencies
EUROSTAT and United Nations. The agreed information is referred at the meetings of the working groups of demographic statistics
Requests from universities, research groups in hospitals, companies and individuals
The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...
On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date.(Click next link)
The information they require is made available to users while respecting the confidentiality of the information. In the changes the content of the questionnaire made in 2007 took into account the additional information needs required by other agencies and institutions.
The information collected allows us to respond to all requests that are received
The completeness rate of the data is 100%
The procedure for the collection, coverage control, filtration and imputation of non-response, allows for a high degree of reliability of the statistics.
Not applicable as the data is obtained in a comprehensive manner from an administrative source (entries in the civil register)
Delays in sending the information by some civil registers and lack of information in some variables of the bulletin. This means that this statistic has a lack of coverage of approximately 0.1 percent
An attempt is made to reduce the lack of coverage by obtaining the file information from the Ministry of Justice
The definitive data of the statistic are published at the end of the year following the reference year of the information, that is, within a period of 12 months.
TP1=12 months
Data dissemination is carried out according to the structural statistics availability calendar that INE develops and publishes each year.
The processing of this statistic is the same for the entire territory in all phases. In this way, the results are fully comparable for any geographical disaggregation. Furthermore, they are comparable with the rest of the countries of the European Union as the Eurostat recommendations established for all countries and agreed upon at the meetings of the working group of Demographic Statistics are followed.
The definition of birth, for the purposes of preparing the corresponding statistic, is different before and after 1975. Until this year, the concept of newborn corresponded with what is defined in the Civil Code, that is to say, for civil purposes only the foetus that has human form and lives for twenty-four hours after being completely removed from the mother shall be deemed to have been born (Article 30 of the Civil Code). Until 1975, birth and death statistics did not conform to internationally recognised population concepts, since these did not include children born alive that died before the age of twenty-four hours of life, which the Civil Code calls Miscarried babies (article 745).
From 1975 the concept of birth in the tables for presenting results of the N.P.M. is identified with the biological definition of live birth, which is used in the demographic field.
This change caused a gap in the series of births from 1975 since before that year the birth figures did not include those born alive but who died before the first 24 hours of life and from 1975 they were included.
The length of the comparable data series is 48 years.
CC2=48 years
Birth data are consistent both with the inhabitants register figures and with the future population forecasts
The consistency between the variables is contrasted in all phases of the statistical process
As it is a statistic based on an administrative register, there is no burden on respondents
The estimate of the necessary budgetary appropriation to finance the Natural Population Movement (formed by the Deaths Statistic, the Births Statistic and the Marriage Statistic) under the 2024 annual Programme is 4,638.12 thousands of euros.
The INE of Spain has a policy which regulates the basic aspects of statistical data revision, seeking to ensure process transparency and product quality. This policy is laid out in the document approved by the INE board of directors on 13 March of 2015, which is available on the INE website, in the section "Methods and projects/Quality and Code of Practice/INE’s Quality management/INE’s Revision policy" (link).
This general policy sets the criteria that the different type of revisions should follow: routine revision- it is the case of statistics whose production process includes regular revisions-; more extensive revision- when methodological or basic reference source changes take place-; and exceptional revision- for instance, when an error appears in a published statistic-.
The definitive data are not revised. They are only revised if there is a publication error
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The information from the Birth Statistics derives from the administrative act of entry into the civil registry. The data is collected from several sources:
• As regards registrations that are carried out in person at the civil registry, the data is collected in a paper document called the Statistics Birth Bulletin (BEP,
per its Spanish initials). This document is filled out by the parents, relatives or by those persons legally bound to declare the birth or, failing that, by the civil
registrar. The BEP is available at Civil Registries as well as at the main maternity services of hospital centres.
• As regards electronic registrations of births at the health centres, they are done by means of the ANDES service. The information is obtained from the files
provided by the Ministry of Justice
• In those cases when the birth information could not be obtained from the two aforementioned sources, the data is obtained from the information provided by
the Ministry of Justice thanks to the recording of the birth entry in the computerised civil registers. In such cases, information on the delivery characteristics or the newborn baby’s weight is not available.
The electronic registration of births from health centres started in October 2015 due to the partial entry into force of Law 20/2011. This application, called ANDES,
collects information relating exclusively to the registration of live births, delivery and newborn characteristics, but does not include data on the mother's previous
child or cohabitation status.
The only tool used for the collection of information on Late Foetal Deaths is the Statistical Birth Bulletin.
As of 2011, live births that pass away within the first 24 hours have both a birth and a death record, so the main source of information used is the Medical
Certificate of Death and each register is complemented by the corresponding Statistical Birth Bulletin.
Data collection is carried out monthly
The information is collected monthly either through the information in the files provided by the Ministry of Justice to the INE with the information collected in those inscriptions that are made from the hospital granted to the ANDES service or through the Birth Statistics Bulletin.
The Statistical Birth Bulletin is completed by persons required by law to make entries in the civil register or, failing that, by the civil registrar. Once completed, the parents of the newborn take the bulletin to the civil register office of the municipality where the birth has occurred or where the mother or father resides for the registration of the child/children born. The civil registry sends the bulletins completed in a month to the INE monthly. The INE receives the documentation from the civil register which is recorded using optical character recognition and the fields are validated. This information is transmitted directly to the INE’s database.
In the initial phase of the statistic, recording using optical character recognition, the application includes the detection of certain errors in the bulletin information as well as the control of coverage and the detection of duplicate information. Such errors have to be corrected in this first phase in order to include their information in the birth database. The aim is to obtain high quality levels that make the process of filtering and imputation of the treatment phases subsequently carried out faster and less expensive.
The recorded data is filtered at the national level in order to detect inconsistencies, duplicates, lack of information, etc. Following this process an automatic imputation phase is applied for variables with missing or inconsistent information. Once this phase has been completed, the statistic's microdata files used to make the tables of publication of births and corresponding indicators of birth, fertility, etc. are obtained. In addition, the anonymised microdata files made available to users on the web are obtained.
As the data for this statistic comes from an administrative register, no adjustments are made