The times change, society evolves and new family models are emerging. Marrying is no longer an indispensable condition for starting a family and this is reflected in the data of a report of the Family Policy Institute, according to which the number of children born to unmarried parents has quadrupled in the last twenty years. Nowadays, 42.5% of children are born to unmarried couples, above the European average, which is 39%.
The growth of extramarital birth has been spectacular in recent years. Births out of wedlock have increased from 40,000 in 1995 to 181,691 in 2014, which has meant a 277% growth. In 1980 they represented only 3.9% of the total, ten years later, 9.6%. From there, its progress soared: 17.7% in 2000 and 35.5% in 2010 to reach the 42.5% recorded in 2014.
The truth is that couples are getting married less and less and later. Marriage is no longer the starting point to start a family as it was years ago. They have lost one in four marriages in 15 years, taking place a transfer to couples in fact.
Marriages have more children than unmarried couples in Spain. Based on 2014 data, out of a total of 11 million couples, 63% of marriages have children, while the percentage of couples with children among unmarried couples is 47%.
Marriages are suffering variations. There are more and more large families, more single-parent families and more international marriages. Those who decide to marry, two out of three marriages do so exclusively for the Civil.
It is clear that times change. We are facing new family models in which children, if any, must remain the priority within the family nucleus, regardless of the decisions taken by their parents.
