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<P><BR>Like you, I was fascinated by the absence of children and the advanced age of many of the local people I met along the Camino when I first walked it in September 1998. Upon returning home I did some research using demographic statistics, and those quickly confirmed that my observations were congruent with actual population patterns.</P>
<P>A full explanation of why there are so few children requires extensive sociological and psychological analysis, but from a demographic perspective there are some simple facts. 1) rural to urban migration came late to Spain (relative to the remainder of Western Europe), but when it started there was a virtual flood tide of rural people into the urban areas, and by 1991 the preponderance of the Spanish population lived in urban areas. 2) Those who migrated were mostly in the childbearing years, leaving few potential parents behind in the rural villages and towns. 3) Beginning about 1950, Spain began to follow the remainder of Europe toward zero (or even negative) population growth rates with very low birth rates. 4) Small families (<=3 children) are now the norm in Spain, and many women do not bear their first child until age 30 or later (The average age at marriage in Spain is greater than in almost any other country). The net c!
onsequence of these factors is a small number of children relative to the size of the total population (similar to most of Western and Central Europe in this regard), and most of those children are urbanites. There are more than a few villages in Spain with too few children to support even a local primary school! One encounters children in those villages during the summer and other school holidays, ones sent "home" to visit with grandparents and other aged relatives but returning to Madrid, Burgos, Santiago, etc. when the school resumes. More than a few urban people still keep the family house in the village as a vacation retreat, but they live and work in an urban area</P>
<P>Thank you for the website reference, for it is indeed most interesting. <BR><BR><BR></P></DIV>
<DIV>E. O. Pederson</DIV>
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<DIV>Seattle, WA</DIV>
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