Most women (51%) and almost half (46%) of men living in Portugal already have children and do not intend to have any more, according to a survey released today.
The Fertility Survey 2013 conducted by the National Statistics Institute in partnership with the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation was carried out between January 16 and April 15 and was aimed at women in Portugal aged between 18 and 49 years, and men aged between 18 and 54 years old.
The investigation to analyse fecundity looked at who wants to have children and who has enough already and shows that women and men respondents have on average 1.03 children, but the average number of children wanted eventually was an average of 2.31 per couple, "but not just now, thank you."
The ideal number of children in a family was reported to be 2.38 children which is close the average number that respondents said they themselves wanted as a family.
Portugal's population is shrinking with couples delaying having children, or more children, until they fell better able to afford the cost.
With a birth rate of just 8.5 live births per thousand inhabitants and a mortality rate of 10.2 per thousand inhabitants, in 2012 Portugal ended 2012 with 55,000 fewer people, according to Eurostat.
