The fall in birth rate It is not something that only happens in Colombia, but a large part of the countries in the world are experiencing this demographic phenomenon and, according to experts, everything seems to indicate that this situation will continue for a long time.
that the people they are increasingly less willing to have children It can have long-term effects on productivity, pensions, employment, economic dynamism and consumption.
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In the case of Colombia, consumption would be greatly affected, taking into account the demographic characteristics of the country. With an estimated 51 million inhabitantsAccording to Dane, the country is the third with the largest population in Latin America (behind Brazil and Mexico) and the 29th globally. Likewise, of this figure, 76% live in urban areas, where 78% of households are also located.
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According to Dane, the changes that households in the country have experienced during the last decade indicate that households are increasingly made up of fewer people.
For example, In 2016 alone, 21.3% of households in the country were made up of five or more people, while by 2023 this percentage fell to 13.5%; and in the case of households with four people, these went from 21.2% to 18.5%.
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On the other hand, more and more households are made up of just a few people. In fact, by 2016, 15% of households were single-person, while by 2023 this figure rose to 19%. In the case of households made up of two people, these went from 19.1% in 2016 to 15.4% in 2023. Finally, households with three people went from 23.4% in 2016 to 23.7% in 2023. .
More diversified household composition
According to Dane, in 2016, almost five out of every 10 households in the country (48.9%) were biparental nuclear (in which both parents or both head and spouse live together, and may or may not have children), while single-person households In that year they were equivalent to 20.6%. Already in 2023, two-parent nuclear households became 45.4% and single-person households became 19.8%.
Other Dane figures also show that in 2016, 17.6% of households were nuclear single parents (in which only one of the parents, either the mother or the father, lives with their children), while in 2023 it increased to 17.7%.
Against this, Raddar highlights that, over the course of those years, Households headed by women grew by 62%, while households headed by men alone showed an increase of 4% in this same period..
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Population
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However, a fact worth highlighting is that, in 2023, two more indicators will be measured: households two-parent broad compounds (households that are formed from a nuclear household, which may or may not have other relatives, plus other people who are not related to the head of the household) and single-parent large compounds (households consisting of a nuclear household, with or without relatives, plus other non-relatives), which represented 0.7% and 0.3% of households in 2023, respectively.
Older age, fewer children
Finally, according to Dane, there have been important transformations in key demographic areas, such as age, the number of children per woman and life expectancy.
For example, for the period between 2016 and 2023, Colombians gained years of life expectancy, going from 75.6 years to 77.9 years; while the average age in the country went from 37.7 years to 34.3 years.
Population
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On issues of birth rateyou can see notable reductions, but not cosmetic ones: within this seven-year period, we went from having 1.78 children per woman to 1.72; At the same time, the birth rate fell from 14.3% to 13.3%.
Regarding issues of employment and productivitythe Dane revealed that, between 2016 and 2023, the dependency ratio in the country, that is, the indicator that relates the number of people who are not productive with the number of people who are, rose from 10.4% to 15.2%, respectively.
Finally, regarding the distribution of the population according to sexby 2016, 49.4% of Colombians were men, while the remaining 50.6% were women. By 2023, the male population fell to 48.8%, while the female population increased to 51.2%.
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