Big Cities in Spain: Population, Housing, and Employment Trends

VALENCIA (EFE). 26% of the Spanish population lives in big citieswho have a greater job offer but expensive housing, and this percentage grows notably if we look at emigration to the surroundings of cities such as Madrid, Seville or Malaga.

The Large Cities Law grants this title to 24 Spanish cities, the first of which is the capital, Madrid.

They are followed by Barcelona, ValenciaSeville, Zaragoza, Malaga, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Bilbao, Alicante, Córdoba, Valladolid, Vigo, Gijón, Hospitalet de Llobregat and Vitoria. They all have more than 250,000 inhabitants, the first criterion of the aforementioned standard.

Coruña, Granada, Oviedo, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Pamplona, ​​Almería and San Sebastián are provincial capitals with more than 175,000 inhabitants, which is why they also appear on the list, according to the second provision of the Law, while others are. for reasons of a political and not demographic nature.

Domain of PP and PSOE

These big cities face the 28-M elections with probability that the power of the two big parties will be maintained, in general termswhose dominance in this environment is overwhelming, with nine socialist mayors and nine popular ones.

The exception is the three Basque capitals, which are considered large cities and in which the mayor’s office belongs to the PNV.

In addition, there are two large Spanish cities governed by coalitions, but both the pact that maintains Podem in the mayor’s office of Barcelona, ​​and the one that brought Compromís to the head of the Valencian council, include essential socialist support.

Similarly, the mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, a city also present on the list of large capitals, took the baton after a motion of no confidence supported by the PP.

hidden growth

The most evident growth of the large Spanish cities occurred as a result of the great immigration from the countryside to the city at the end of the 20th century; but now they receive other types of demographic movements that are not so obvious.

The Spanish population has increased since the year 2000 by 17%, a population growth figure that many of these cities do not reach. So, relatively speaking, a lot of big cities haven’t grown, apparently.

The exceptions occur in certain places on the Mediterranean coast, such as Murcia, whose population increased by 29%; Palma de Mallorca, 24%; or Alicante, 22%.

The writer and journalist Jorge Dioniauthor of The Spain of swimming pools (2021), explains that, in reality, the demographic movements of the last decades have occurred towards the surroundings of these large cities.

Thus, for example, the Community of Madrid has gained 30% of its population since 2000, more than a million and a half inhabitants (from 5.2 to 6.8 million, according to the National Institute of Statistics). And the figure would be much higher if we looked at its surroundings, including Toledo or Guadalajara and their provinces.

And yet, says Dioni, “the city of Madrid, as a city, has not grown in such a spectacular way.” And the same happens with Seville or Bilbao, whose supposed stagnation is misleading.

“There is a somewhat silent migratory movement towards urban areas. Seville stagnates, but its urban area grows a lot, starting with municipalities like Dos Hermanas, which also has areas with a very high level of income and which is now a part of the city. Communications have improved a lot, distances are now shorter, ”he explains.

Another example: compared to an increase of some 2,000 people compared to 2022 that the Malaga City Council has communicated to the INE, the province has received 22,000 residents in the last year, who have been distributed in the city and in other coastal municipalities such as Mijas, Velez-Malaga or Rincón de la Victoria.

expensive housing

In the list of large cities there are several of the capitals where there are more areas that the new housing law considers stressed, that is, those areas where the price of housing has increased a lot in recent years.

It is worth mentioning Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Valencia and Malaga, and also Palma de Mallorca, according to the consultancy Atlas Real State – Analytics.

Employment

Regarding employment, a study by the Adecco Foundation in July 2022 indicated that Madrid leads the ranking with 24% of the offers, followed by Barcelona, ​​with 17.8%.

Next, Vizcaya, Valencia and San Sebastián account for 4.8%, 4.1% and 3.6% of the national job offer. It is followed by Zaragoza, with 3.1%, Seville (2.6%) and Malaga (2.5%). Vitoria is also among the large cities with the most job offers, according to this ranking

high rents

In addition, according to the INE, there are several large Spanish cities that stand out in some aspect. Thus, for example, the INE places large cities such as Madrid, Bilbao, Oviedo and Coruña, and also Barcelona and San Sebastián, among the municipalities with the highest average annual income per inhabitant (2019).

San Sebastián is also among the cities with the highest life expectancy in the country (2019), while Malaga is among the cities with the lowest life expectancy.

Oviedo is also on the list of cities with the lowest activity rate, along with other large cities such as Valladolid and Gijón. On the other hand, in Alicante and Seville are some of the poorest neighborhoods in the country.

These are the ten large Spanish cities: