Spain has more than 8,000 municipalities, but many of them are nearly empty. The urbanization process continues and not only are people moving from the countryside to towns and cities, people are also moving from towns and smaller cities to the bigger ones. Also, the coastal areas and tourist destinations are recipients of people on the move.
Below we have put together an overview of the number of municipalities based on the number of inhabitants. From the total of 8,131 municipalities (actually a small increase compared to the previous year) 5,000 of them have less than 1,000 inhabitants. On the other end of the scale we find that 63 municipalities have more than 100,000 inhabitants.
Additionally, we made a graphic involving the average number of people in those same municipalities. On the whole, the average number of inhabitants is a meager 5,784. Compared to many other countries which merge their municipalities and regions into larger units, Spain is quite unique. 5,000 of the 8,131 municipalities have an average of less than 300 people living there. Barely enough to form a community with a functioning administration really. But we will get back to the laws and rules concerning duties of local administrations. Those duties are based on the number of inhabitants and increase with the size of the population.
Among the largest municipalities we find an average population reaching almost 300,000. And they continue their growth.
For more information on this subject, see INE’s own infographic here: https://www.ine.es/en/infografias/infografia_padron_en.pdf).
Harry B., Find Your Spain!
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