The population in Spain fell by 106,000 people in 2020, the first decline after four years of rise

After four consecutive years of increase in the total population of Spain, this 2021 has begun with a decrease of 0.2% in the number of inhabitants: 106,146 fewer people compared to January 1, 2020 for a total of 47,344,649 a January 1st. This is clear from the Advance of the Continuous Register Statistics published this Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), whose figures are still provisional, but which allow us to appreciate the effect of the pandemic in Spain. Of those 47.3 million, 88.6% have Spanish nationality (41,936,827) and 11.4% are foreign (5,407,822). The number of Spaniards fell during 2020 by 0.2% (79,815 people) and that of foreigners by 0.5% (26,331 people). Among the latter, those belonging to the European Union (EU) fell by 37,870 (–2.3%), while those from non-EU countries grew by 11.539 people (0.3%).

49% of the total registered in the register are men and 51% women.

Among Spaniards there are more women (51.1%), while among foreigners there are a very slight majority men (50.1%).

By age, 15.1% of the population is under 16 years old;

35.5%, between 16 and 44 years old;

29.7% are between 45 and 64;

and 19.7%, 65 or more years.

The average age of the registered population is 43.8 years.

That of Spaniards is 44.7 years and that of foreigners is 36.6 (that of citizens of countries belonging to the EU is 38.9).

The biggest decreases, in Madrid, Catalonia and Castilla y León

The most populated autonomous communities as of January 1, 2021 were Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid, while those with the least population were La Rioja, Cantabria and Navarra.

In the last year, the number of people registered has decreased in most regions.

Madrid (34,297 less), Catalonia (23,551 less) and Castilla y León (13,637 less) were those that experienced the largest decreases in absolute terms between January 1, 2020 and January 1, 2021. The largest increases in population were they produced in Murcia (6,687 more people), Castilla-La Mancha (2,571 more) and Cantabria (1,403 more).

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Of the 8,131 municipalities in Spain, 5,002 have a population of less than a thousand inhabitants. The communities with the highest number of municipalities with less than a thousand inhabitants are Castilla y León (2,009 municipalities), Castilla-La Mancha (641) and Aragón (630). On the contrary, the communities with the least number of municipalities with less than one thousand inhabitants are the Canary Islands (one municipality), the Murcia Region (two) and the Balearic Islands (six).