{"id":3468,"date":"2022-10-23T17:44:11","date_gmt":"2022-10-23T16:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/findyourspain.com\/?p=3468"},"modified":"2022-10-23T17:44:11","modified_gmt":"2022-10-23T16:44:11","slug":"spanish-regions-by-size-population-and-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/findyourspain.com\/?p=3468","title":{"rendered":"Spanish Regions by Size, Population and Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Spain consists of 17 regions, also called autonomous communities. These include the island regions of the Canaries and the Balearics. In addition, there are two autonomous city areas, enclaves named Ceuta and Melilla, located on the Northwestern coast of the African continent. The regions are both political and administrative units with each one having their own capital, parliament, their own set of laws, election processes and more. But do know how they rank in terms of geographical size and population? And how about their economies?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spanish Regions Ranked by Geographical Size<\/h2>\n\n\n
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The largest regions measured by their geographical sizes are the two Castiles and Andalusia. Castile and Le\u00f3n is the largest of the 17 regions, followed by Andalusia and Castile La Mancha. On the other end of the size scale, we find Cantabria, La Rioja and the Balearic Islands. These are the smallest regions in the country. The Balearic Islands are about 1\/19th<\/sup> the size of Spain’s largest region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spanish Regions by Population<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Andalusia has the highest population number of any Spanish region followed by Catalonia, Madrid and Valencia. Of these, and as highly developed centers of political power and trade, Madrid has a considerably higher population density than the other three which you can see from the graphic below. All of these regions are also popular tourist destinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You find the smallest populations Navarre, Cantabria and La Rioja.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, small populations do not necessarily mean less populated in relation to their sizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spanish Regions Ranked by Population Density<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Looking at population density (population numbers from 2019 divided by surface area in square kilometers) makes Madrid stand out by a huge margin. Basque Country, Catalonia and Valencia along with the island regions follow thereafter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the regions with the lowest population density include two of the country’s largest, namely the Castiles. Extremadura also has a very low amount of people per square kilometer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parts of many Spanish regions experience loosing inhabitants to the relatively few growing city centers in the country. And, with the urbanization process continuing, “empty Spain” has become a concept of depopulation and rural problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spanish Regions Ranked by the Size of Their Economies<\/h2>\n\n\n
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The most important regions in terms of their economies are Madrid and Catalonia. Being two of the largest population centers, they also represent both political power as well as centers of industries and trade. The next regions on the list are the other two main population centers in the country, Andalusia and Valencia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The smallest regional economies are found in Extremadura, Cantabria and La Rioja.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we instead look at the regional economies from a per capita point of view, we get a somewhat different picture:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spanish Regions Ranked by GDP per Capita<\/h2>\n\n\n
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From this perspective, Basque Country, Navarre, Arag\u00f3n and La Rioja rank much higher and close to the levels of Madrid and Catalonia. Hence, value creation per person in these regions is similar to that of the main centers in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the lower end of the scale, we find Castile La Mancha, Andalusia and Extremadura. Despite their differences, they all contain very very significant portions of agriculture and tourism. Both of which are typically lower income industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Want to read more about the Spanish regions? Take a look at our page The Spanish Regions<\/a> or check out the individual region-pages that include links to tourism agencies and other information you may find interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We at Find Your Spain publish in-house written articles and provide links to content from other sources which we hope you will find useful, interesting, and informative. Got a tip for us? Drop us a line, comment on a post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Explore. Learn. Make yourself at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spain consists of 17 regions, also called autonomous communities. These include the island regions of the Canaries and the Balearics. In addition, there are two autonomous city areas, enclaves named Ceuta and Melilla, located on the Northwestern coast of the African continent. The regions are both political and administrative unitsContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-biztalk-anne","post-3468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-about-spain","category-the-regions"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/findyourspain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Spanish-Regions-Image-500-220.jpg?fit=500%2C220&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/findyourspain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/findyourspain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/findyourspain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/findyourspain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/findyourspain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3468"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/findyourspain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3532,"href":"https:\/\/findyourspain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3468\/revisions\/3532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/findyourspain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/findyourspain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/findyourspain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/findyourspain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}