Garachico began to lose population in the 90s of the 20th century and entered the 21st century with a dwindling census, like the rest of Isla Baja, which made it go from 13 to 11 councilors as of the municipal elections of 2019. However, that critical moment also marked the beginning of a change in trend that has been consolidated despite the crisis due to the pandemic: Garachico gradually recovers population and approaches 5,000 inhabitants again.
The mayor of the Villa and Port, José Heriberto González (CC), recently celebrated the latest information provided by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), that has confirmed this population change. The town now has 4,920 inhabitants. “Garachico is gaining inhabitants year after year, but it does so little by little, gradually,” celebrates the mayor.
For José Heriberto González, the most important thing is that Garachico is consolidating its population figures since 2019 and has reversed the downward trend, “despite the fact that we are living through difficult times and that we are in a town where there are hardly any possibilities for urban development.”
«In Garachico we have five protected spaces and barely 4.5% of the surface of the municipality is buildable. And of that 4.5%, 2% is affected by the limitations of the historical set. The reality is that we only have 2.5% of the land available for urbanization, within limitations that, for example, set the maximum buildable area at three floors in some areas of the neighbourhoods. In the rest of the municipality they cannot be raised more than two heights. Here it is not possible to authorize those promotions of buildings that in other places increase the population immediately », he emphasizes.
José Heriberto González also does not fully believe the figures of more than 6,000 inhabitants that Garachico had in the 90s of the 20th century. He considers that those were “inflated registers” by registered people who never lived in Garachico or who, after residing there for a while, left the town, “but never dropped out.” The purification of those patterns altered by the lack of rigor generated an abrupt population decline from which Isla Baja has not yet recovered.
González celebrates that “as of 2019, in Garachico we are observing a change in trend. The decline in population has stopped and the population has stabilized. Rather, it has been rising even slightly. In 2021 we have increased by 26 inhabitants and, compared to 2018, we have 76 more. The number of residents stood at 4,895 in 2021 and now they tell us that there are 4,920 », he details.
For the nationalist president, Going back over the 5,000-inhabitant ceiling is not a priority objective: «At the moment, due to the policies promoted by issues such as the so-called Empty Spain, it is even convenient for us to keep below 5,000 inhabitants in order to access this extraordinary financing». Despite everything, he acknowledges that “stabilizing the population at current figures is indeed a success, and even more so in these difficult times.”
Garachico had a total of 5,169 inhabitants in 2014, 98 less than in 1960 (5,267) and just 246 more than in 1950 (5,021) or 254 more than in 1940 (5,013). Gone are the years in which it exceeded 6,000 inhabitants, between the 80s and 90s of the 20th century. Now, with 4,920, it begins a takeoff that it hopes will allow it to correct the negative growth, since currently more Garachiquenses die than are born. “What allows us to grow is the arrival of neighbors who come thanks to economic and tourist growth,” he concludes.
