In recent years, the Spanish population has not stopped growing, as we have gone from having just over 39.5 million inhabitants in 1996 to 46,722,980 in 2018 , according to data provided by the National Institute of Statistics. However, this growth has been very uneven and, in addition to the usual migratory flow from cities to the countryside, many small provincial capitals are also beginning to experience depopulation.
Of the fifty provincial capitals, fourteen of them (sixteen if we count the autonomous cities Ceuta and Melilla) do not exceed one hundred thousand inhabitants. At the top, Teruel, the least populated capital of Spain, which in 2018 had only 35,691 inhabitants. They are followed, in increasing order of inhabitants, by Soria, Segovia, Huesca, Cuenca, Ávila, Zamora, Ciudad Real, Palencia, Pontevedra, Toledo, Guadalajara, Ceuta, Melilla, Cáceres and Lugo. At the other end of the ranking, the most populated cities are Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville and Zaragoza.
Provinces most affected by depopulation
Since the rural world is the most affected by depopulation, it is more useful to analyze the number of inhabitants in each province. Without counting Ceuta and Melilla, Soria tops the list, with a population of 88,600 inhabitants. They are followed by Teruel, with 134,572 inhabitants, Segovia, Ávila, Palencia, Zamora, Cuenca and Huesca.
Autonomous communities with less population density
Although La Rioja is the region with the fewest inhabitants in Spain, if we analyze the population density (number of inhabitants per square kilometer), things change and it is the two Castiles that have the lowest values. Using the 2018 census data, we have calculated a population density value of 25.5 inhabitants per square kilometer for Castilla la Mancha and 25.6 for Castilla y León. They are followed by Extremadura, Aragon and Navarra. At the other extreme, the most densely populated region is Madrid, with 819.4 inhabitants per square kilometer, followed by the Basque Country, the Canary Islands and Catalonia.
In recent years there is much talk of Spanish Lapland or South Lapland, a term that refers to an area of Spain especially affected by low population density. It covers several municipalities belonging to the provinces of Teruel, Zaragoza, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Burgos, Segovia, Soria, Castellón, Valencia and La Rioja. This region is also historically known as Serranía Celtiberica, because in ancient times it was occupied by the Celtiberian people.
The inhabitants of this area, as well as those of many other Spanish regions threatened by depopulation, demand that they be no longer considered “second-class citizens”, and demand their legitimate right of access to public services (health, public transport, etc. ) quality. The development of programs that promote the real consolidation of new settlers in these areas, and that prevent the few remaining inhabitants from being forced to emigrate, will be the key to fighting against depopulation and putting an end to that empty or emptied Spain of the how much is said.
