The first time I saw a bunch of nursery children all attached to a rope here in Spain must have been forty years ago. It was, and still is, a soothing image of a society where children play an integral part of a community with strong family ties and where children are actually liked, even if they are not one’s own.

But, Spanish women are less fecund now then they used to be or, at any rate, less willing to be child-bearing. Until the 1980s, Spain had one of the highest birth rates in Europe but, not any longer. The Instituto Nacional de Estatística (Spanish National Institute of Statistics) has us know that in 1975, the total fertility rate in Spain was 2.86, compared to an estimate of 1.47 in 2010. Spain has the most accelerated decrease in fecundity of all European countries during the last 25 years, now ranking amongst the lowest fertility rates in Europe.

Spain is changing in big ways.

The photo was taken in Manacor, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: April 6th, 2011. The time was 10:46:27.