6 ms·

The article is essentially about falling Demographics, its a giant issue looming in not just Spain, but most of the EU, Japan and China. Three generations now

The article is essentially about falling Demographics, its a giant issue looming in not just Spain, but most of the EU, Japan and China. Three generations now where birthrates have been below replacement level. The affects are already seen in Greece and other places like these villages, in ten years time when most of the Boomers are over 65, we have some very serious issues.

vijayr 11y ago
And yet countries like Japan have very bad attitude towards immigration. Interesting times ahead.
- ZoeZoeBee 11y ago
  Immigration has some drawbacks, especially in an advanced economy
  - goldfeld 11y ago
    Berlin doesn't seem to think so.
    - tsotha 11y ago
      I sure for government and industrialist types an endless supply of cheap labor to depress wages is a good thing. I question whether it's good for the average German, though.
    - bpodgursky 11y ago
      Berlin is importing a bunch of highly-educated unemployed Spaniards. It's not really the same thing.
gutnor 11y ago
Falling demographic is one issue, but the problem here is also due to urbanization[0]. My wife's village in Spain has a population between 50-100 during winter time and jump to over 1000 in summer time where families are back for holiday. Those people are not tourist, they are the sons, and grand-sons of the village. Plenty of people still, just not enough jobs to keep them around all year round. [0] Edit: Another point worth noting - real estate in the villages, even live one is extremely cheap compared to Spanish cities. You will find large houses with patio, and everything for around 10K EUR. So 10K for a whole village is not as extreme as one may think. You will still need at least 100K for a very shitty 2 bed in an average area of Madrid.
- riffraff 11y ago
  the same is true in a bunch of places in Italy. And once a small town goes below some threshold, it becomes much harder to live there because of the lack of job options (e.g. in a big city you can more easily work as a psychologist, office clerk or barmaid; in a town of 300 people, of which 80 are in retirement, it's a lot less likely). Also, many old manual jobs are shunned by youngsters, or have been mechanized/automated, so doing "what your grandpa did in the old village", is not generally a realistic option.
draugadrotten 11y ago
Yet, the opposite of falling demographics is a giant issue looming over Europe - because of the incredible high nativity of Africa and the waves of refugees to Europe. "African mothers have an average of 5.2 children, rising to 7.6 in Niger, the country with the world's highest fertility rate that is close to five times the European average of 1.6 children born to each woman. The baby boom means that its current population of 1.1 billion will increase to at least 2.4 billion by the middle of the century, according to the study from the respected organisation." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/10305000/Africas-population-to-double-to-2.4-billion-by-2050.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianoce... The refugees are already straining the resources of Europe and another billion(!) won't make anything better.
- brohee 11y ago
  The Telegraph is using old fertility numbers, on purpose I guess... http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=fertility+in+africa http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=fertility+in+africa gives 4.7 children per female, but I wonder if the average is weighted per contry population, as the high fertility countries have a very small population, and the highly populated one being way below that (exception for Nigeria). And more interesting is the curve, falling.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - noselasd 11y ago
    You can explore that here: http://tinyurl.com/nksygxp http://tinyurl.com/nksygxp (needs flash)
- Shivetya 11y ago
  well considering they need homes it seems government resources could be used to settle them in villages similar to this with access to land to allow them to keep their community. It certainly should cost less and if you find a tight knit group they are likely to work hard to improve the area.

vijayr 11y ago

And yet countries like Japan have very bad attitude towards immigration. Interesting times ahead.

ZoeZoeBee 11y ago
Immigration has some drawbacks, especially in an advanced economy
- goldfeld 11y ago
  Berlin doesn't seem to think so.
  - tsotha 11y ago
    I sure for government and industrialist types an endless supply of cheap labor to depress wages is a good thing. I question whether it's good for the average German, though.
  - bpodgursky 11y ago
    Berlin is importing a bunch of highly-educated unemployed Spaniards. It's not really the same thing.

gutnor 11y ago

Falling demographic is one issue, but the problem here is also due to urbanization[0]. My wife's village in Spain has a population between 50-100 during winter time and jump to over 1000 in summer time where families are back for holiday. Those people are not tourist, they are the sons, and grand-sons of the village. Plenty of people still, just not enough jobs to keep them around all year round. [0] Edit: Another point worth noting - real estate in the villages, even live one is extremely cheap compared to Spanish cities. You will find large houses with patio, and everything for around 10K EUR. So 10K for a whole village is not as extreme as one may think. You will still need at least 100K for a very shitty 2 bed in an average area of Madrid.

riffraff 11y ago
the same is true in a bunch of places in Italy. And once a small town goes below some threshold, it becomes much harder to live there because of the lack of job options (e.g. in a big city you can more easily work as a psychologist, office clerk or barmaid; in a town of 300 people, of which 80 are in retirement, it's a lot less likely). Also, many old manual jobs are shunned by youngsters, or have been mechanized/automated, so doing "what your grandpa did in the old village", is not generally a realistic option.

draugadrotten 11y ago

Yet, the opposite of falling demographics is a giant issue looming over Europe - because of the incredible high nativity of Africa and the waves of refugees to Europe. "African mothers have an average of 5.2 children, rising to 7.6 in Niger, the country with the world's highest fertility rate that is close to five times the European average of 1.6 children born to each woman. The baby boom means that its current population of 1.1 billion will increase to at least 2.4 billion by the middle of the century, according to the study from the respected organisation." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/10305000/Africas-population-to-double-to-2.4-billion-by-2050.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianoce... The refugees are already straining the resources of Europe and another billion(!) won't make anything better.

brohee 11y ago
The Telegraph is using old fertility numbers, on purpose I guess... http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=fertility+in+africa http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=fertility+in+africa gives 4.7 children per female, but I wonder if the average is weighted per contry population, as the high fertility countries have a very small population, and the highly populated one being way below that (exception for Nigeria). And more interesting is the curve, falling.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- noselasd 11y ago
  You can explore that here: http://tinyurl.com/nksygxp http://tinyurl.com/nksygxp (needs flash)
Shivetya 11y ago
well considering they need homes it seems government resources could be used to settle them in villages similar to this with access to land to allow them to keep their community. It certainly should cost less and if you find a tight knit group they are likely to work hard to improve the area.