Catalonia, with the lowest birth rate in its history, has gone from six million inhabitants in 1987 to the current eight million. On November 1, the inhabitants of Catalonia were 8,005,784 (4,065,088 women and 3,940,696 men), according to the Institute of Statistics of Catalonia, which calculated that this figure would be exceeded later, at the end of this decade. .
The Minister of Social Rights, Carles Campuzano, discussed this issue with Albert Esteve, director of the Center for Demographic Studies. The meeting is part of a series of lectures by the Cercle d'Economia and was moderated by a member of its board of directors, Rita Amela.
The generic title of the talks could not be more revealing: Immigration in advanced countries: problem or solution? The specific heading of this Thursday's event is also very significant: We are 8 million... and now what? Well now, as in the joke, Catalunya will have to look for a bigger hotel.
That metaphorical hotel will be, in the words of Minister Campuzano, the integration and social care policies. He and Albert Esteve agreed that more inhabitants had never lived “in this little corner of the planet,” but paradoxically there had never been such a low natural growth rate, that is, such a large difference between deaths and births. Catalonia has “the fertility rate in the ICU”, as Albert Esteve said.
If it has grown, it has been thanks to immigration. “Two out of every three babies born are to mothers of foreign origin,” added this demographic expert. “We have always been a country of immigrants,” replied the Social Rights Minister, who recalled that when he came into the world, in 1964, “more than 50% of the people who lived in Catalonia had not been born here.”
Let's go back to one of the Cercle de Economia questions: What now? “Yes, we have been a country of immigrants, but if we want to continue being a country we will have to strengthen social cohesion policies,” responded the minister, who regretted the very low percentage of GDP that Spain allocates to these policies.
The Center d’Estudis Demogràfics is “one of the least known and most relevant jewels of Catalonia”, according to Cercle. The director of this population observatory predicted that in the next “ten or fifteen years Catalonia will reach nine million.” A joke from Jordi Pujol's time, who was in the front row of the auditorium, presented him traveling to China and saying: "Som 6 milions." “Very good and what hotel are you staying in?”
