Spain has 2nd largest number of adoptions in world

MADRID. January 16. KAZINFORM Spain has the world's second largest number of adopted foreign children after the United States, Amparo Marzal, general director of Families and Infancy, said Thursday.

Spain keeps the position despite that the adoptions of foreign children declined 18 percent from 2004 to 2007, Marzal said. More than 50 percent of the adopted children in Spain are from China and Russia, and the others mainly come from Ethiopia, Ukraine and Colombia. The Nino de Jesus Hospital in Madrid said that most of the adopted children arrived in Spain in good health. In 2007, the number of foreign children adopted in Spain totaled 3,648, about 69 percent of whom were under three years of age, Kazinform cites Xinhuanet.