Madrid was the capital that gained the most inhabitants in 2022, specifically 73,149, in absolute numbers, ahead of Barcelona, with 40,832, or Valencia, with 13,324, according to the Population Census as of January 1, 2023, which has just been published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
In proportional terms, taking into account their size, Torrevieja, on the Costa Blanca, and Estepona, on the Costa del Sol, are among the large Spanish municipalities that grew the most in population in 2022, while two Andalusian cities, Linares, in Jaén , and Cádiz capital were the ones that lost the most inhabitants, says the INE statistics.
The Population Census reveals that while Torrevieja (Alicante) saw its population increase by 6.8% in just one year and Estepona (Málaga) by 4.6%, Linares (Jaén) and Cádiz not only did not grow but also lost in those twelve months 1.1% of its inhabitants each.
Among the main municipalities in the country where the population increased the most are three other cities in the same areas in third, fourth and fifth place: Benidorm (Alicante), 4.3%, and Marbella and Benalmádena (Málaga), 3.9%. and 3.8%, respectively.
Below are the municipalities of Rivas-Vaciamadrid (Madrid) and L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), with 3.5% more inhabitants in both cases; Arona (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), with 3.4%, and two other cities in the Community of Madrid such as Colmenar Viejo and Boadilla del Monte, with increases of 3.3 and 3.2%, respectively.
In absolute figures, Madrid was the city that gained the most inhabitants, specifically 73,149, ahead of Barcelona, with 40,832; València, with 13,324, and Alacant, with 10,338, followed by L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, the first municipality on the list that is not the provincial capital, with an increase of 9,366 residents.
On the side of population declines, after Linares and Cádiz, Puertollano (Ciudad Real) is in third place, with a population drop of 0.8% only in 2022 and then two cities in the Madrid belt such as Coslada and Fuenlabrada, each of which lost 0.5% of its inhabitants that year.
The list of the ten large Spanish municipalities that saw their population reduced the most last year is closed by five towns in the center and, above all, the north of the peninsula: Avilés (Asturias), Ferrol (A Coruña) and Zamora with a decrease of 0.4% each; Getxo (Bizkaia), with a fall of 0.3%, and Cuenca, with 0.2% less. Four out of every ten Spaniards live in large cities
The INE's annual population statistics also show that four out of every ten Spaniards, specifically 40.1% of the population, resided at the beginning of 2023 in municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants.
Another two out of every ten lived in municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants and only three out of every 100 Spaniards lived in towns with less than a thousand inhabitants.
In Spain, as of January 1, 2023, there were a total of 65 cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, of which 36 are capitals and 29 are not.
Among the latter, the most populated are Vigo (294,910 inhabitants), L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (276,617), Gijón (268,984), Elche (238,285) and Terrassa (225,274).
In addition, there were 4,978 towns with a thousand or less than a thousand inhabitants and, of them, 1,369 had 100 or less than 100 residents and 18 of these had only ten or less than ten neighbors.
Another fact is that in 4,725 of the 8,131 municipalities existing on January 1, 2023, that is, 58.1% of the total, the population increased or remained the same during 2022. Alicante and Guadalajara, the provinces that grew the most
By provinces, all but seven saw their number of inhabitants increase during the last year and those that grew the most were Alicante and Guadalajara, 2.5% in each case, and Girona, 2.3%.
On the contrary, the greatest decreases were recorded in the provinces of Jaén (0.6%), Zamora (0.6%) and Badajoz (0.3%).
By autonomous community, the population increased in all of them except Extremadura, where it decreased by 2,502 people.
The largest increases occurred in Catalonia, with 140,140 more inhabitants; the Community of Madrid, with 128,649 more; and the Valencian Community, with 108,079 more.
In relative terms, that is, in relation to its population, the largest population increases were recorded in the Valencian Community, 2.1%, and in the Balearic Islands and the Community of Madrid, 1.9% in both.
