Spaniards surpass 44 years of average age for the first time in 20 years | Society
Spain ages. The average age of Spaniards has exceeded 44 years for the first time in 20 years, when the National Institute of Statistics (INE) began to collect data from the Continuous Register. According to the provisional data offered on Thursday, the average age of the country as a whole (which also includes foreigners) stands at 43.4 years, also the highest figure in the last two decades. It is the immigrants who moderate aging, given that in 2018 they had an average of 36.1 years - the largest figure since 2000-.
"It is the highest average age since there are records", explains Antonio Abellán, researcher of the Department of Population of the Superior Council of Scientific Investigations. "The INE collects these figures from 1998, but if you study the average age with data from the censuses, in 1910 it was 28.2 years, at the beginning of the 21st century, of 40. We have already surpassed 43 years. 21st century we will reach 50. The average age has skyrocketed, "he adds. "In recent years it has been increasing by the groups of the baby boom, a very large generation, which is now between 42 and 61 years old, "says Abellán.
Almost one in five people living in Spain is 65 or older, according to the provisional data released this Thursday by the INE. For the first time the barrier of nine million people in this age group has been exceeded. "It will increase, soon we will be in the 10 million, now some 500,000 will be 65 each year, in 2024 there will be 600,000, in 2033 there will be 700,000, there will be more life expectancy and numerous generations, such as the baby boom, will be arriving. these ages, "says Abellán.
More than 47 million people
According to the provisional data released this Thursday by the INE, the Spanish population exceeds 47 million inhabitants, a number that was not reached since 2013. In 2018, registered voters increased by 284,387 people (0.6%). This increase is also due to foreign citizens: the country added 290,573 immigrant arrivals last year (the figure is 6.1% more than in 2017, almost double the previous year, and the largest increase since 2008), while the net number of Spaniards decreased by 6,186 people (0.01% less).
With the provisional data, as of January 1, 2019, Spain has 47,007,367 registered persons. This continues with the trend that began in 2016, when there was an increase after four years of falls. 89.3% of the population, that is, 42 million people, have Spanish nationality and the remaining 10.7% are foreigners.
The number of immigrants has grown for the second year in a row, after his departure during the crisis. The number of registered foreigners was not above five million people since 2014. Among the latter, those belonging to the European Union increased by 36,049 (2%) and non-EU grew by 254,524 (8.6) %).
According to the data released on Thursday, four out of 10 people live in municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants (there are 63 in Spain). The population is divided almost half between men and women. In the last year, the population has decreased in four autonomous communities and has increased in the rest. In absolute terms, Castilla y León (with 10,950 fewer people), Extremadura (5,865) and Asturias (5,574) are the ones that lost most of their population. In relative terms, these three autonomies, which registered a loss of 0.5% of their citizens, also welcomed the greatest decreases in the census. On the contrary, the Community of Madrid (with 83,870 more people), Catalonia (72,634) and Comunidad Valenciana (37,165) experienced the largest population increases in absolute terms. Percentually, the greatest increases were in the Balearic Islands (1.8%), the Community of Madrid (1.3%) and the Canary Islands (1.2%).
