The first-ever €1,000 ‘baby check’ has been handed out in Almeria as part of a new scheme designed to encourage families to remain in rural Spain.

Baby Noa’s parents, Ruben Fernandez and Noemi Agudo, were presented with the payment on Saturday as officials celebrated the arrival of a new resident in a community where every birth can make a difference.

Another 15 applications have already been processed, meaning 16 families across 11 municipalities are in line to benefit from the scheme.

Who can claim the €1,000?

The payment applies to births and adoptions taking place during 2026 in qualifying municipalities in Almeria province.

At least one parent must have been officially registered on the padron for a minimum of one year before the birth or adoption in an Almeria municipality with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants.

Importantly, the €1,000 payment is compatible with other grants or financial assistance families may receive from public administrations.

It is also being awarded through a non-competitive process, meaning families are not competing against each other for a limited number of grants.

Once an application has been approved, the Diputacion de Almeria will pay the money directly into the beneficiary’s bank account.

Fighting rural depopulation

The initiative forms part of the provincial authority’s Almeria 103 Strategy, which includes a €17million package of measures aimed at supporting the province and its smaller communities.

Diputacion president Jose Antonio Garcia Alcaina said the scheme was inspired by the Spanish saying that babies are born ‘with a loaf of bread under their arm’.

‘We want to promote and guarantee the future of our villages, and for that it is essential that they are filled with children,’ Garcia Alcaina said.

He argued that children bring ‘not only happiness to their homes, but to the whole village and the rest of the province’.

The baby bonus sits alongside other provincial initiatives intended to maintain life in sparsely populated communities, including measures aimed at combating financial exclusion and ensuring municipalities retain basic services and social meeting points.

‘We wanted to live in a small village’

Noa’s parents said the rural lifestyle is precisely what attracted them to Sufli.

‘Our idea was to live in a small village, somewhere peaceful, and for her to grow up as we did,’ her mother Noemi said.

‘This help is an incentive that we’re going to make very good use of.’

Sufli Town Hall also gave the family a basket to celebrate Noa’s birth.

Mayor Raul Guirao said a new child carries particular significance in a community of its size.

‘A birth is always good news, but in a small municipality even more so, because it means future, hope and life for our village,’ he said.

So far, four payments have been processed in Uleila del Campo, two each in Huecija and Lucainena de las Torres, and one each in Benizalon, Chercos, Lijar, Partaloa, Paterna del Rio, Santa Fe de Mondujar, Sufli and Alhabia.

Dozens of other Almeria municipalities with populations below 1,000 could potentially qualify under the scheme, provided applicants meet all of the residency and birth or adoption requirements.

Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.