A total of 13,599 people moved to live from the city to non-urban municipalities, in 2022, compared to the most intense flow recorded in previous years, in the midst of covid, with 21,672 changes of residence in that sense, in 2021 , and 27,867, in 2020, according to the Institute of Statistics of Catalonia (Idescat).
Barcelona is the municipality with the most net departures to the rest of Catalonia, specifically 10,079; followed by L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, with 1,518, and Badalona, with 1,224. The main recipients of this population are towns with between 5,000 and 50,000 inhabitants with a positive balance of 9,531 registered residents, a figure slightly higher than the 9,167 in 2019, before the pandemic. Calafell, with 556 new residents; Sant Just Desvern, with 486, and Cunit, with 465, are the ones that earn the most.
Idescat highlights that destinations in rural areas registered 4,048 more entries than exits, a lower number than the years of the pandemic, with 11,374, in 2020, and 7,735, in 2021. But, in this case, it is also higher than the 2,799 in 2019.
Catalonia registered a total of 272,971 changes of residence in 2022, 57% of which also involved a movement to a different region. Barcelona is the one with the greatest negative migratory flow (-13,279), while Vallès Oriental, Baix Penedès, Maresme and Garraf are the ones with the most new neighbors, 1,634, 1,577, 1,498 and 1,107, respectively.
It should be noted that regarding migrations abroad the balance is positive, with 158,546 people, the highest historical value.
