The data from the new census prepared by the National Statistics Institute (INE) leave no doubt: the population growth hits Canary Islands. But it does not do so with the same force in all areas of the Islands. The figures confirm what politicians and experts have been warning for months, the population is increasing and it is concentrated in very specific points of the Archipelago. The latest INE record for 2021 – published yesterday – reflects that in the Canary Islands the population rises to 2,178,924 people. Of these, 1,226,010, which means 56% are concentrated in only ten of the 88 municipalities that the autonomous community has.
Reef, the palms of Gran CanariaSan Bartolomé de Tirajana, Santa Lucía de Tirajana, Telde, Arona, Adeje, Granadilla de Abona, San Cristóbal de La Laguna and Santa Cruz de Tenerife They are the most populated municipalities of the Islands. So much that, three out of five canaries reside in one of these areas. Others such as San Miguel de Abona or La Antigua also stand out for being among the 20 Spanish municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants with the highest population growth in the last ten years. On the opposite side is Mogán, which has lost 10.2% of its population in the last decade.
Data from the last ten years show a slowdown in population growth
Many islanders have chosen the provincial capitals to live. Only in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria there are 380,667 registered people and in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 208,103. Together, they add up to 27% of the population registered in the Canary Islands.
Precisely the unequal distribution is one of the questions that the speakers are repeating the most in the sessions of the parliamentary commission on the demographic challenge and the population balance in the Canary Islands. Experts insist that while some islands are supporting a lot of demographic weightOthers, such as La Palma, El Hierro or La Gomera, are emptying out and presenting population stagnation.
Population growth is not new. The INE data, published every ten years, reflect a strong increase in the figures since 1981 when 1,367,669 people had registered on the Islands. Forty years later the data has grown to more than 800,000 people. Only in the last decade, since 2011, there has been an increase of almost 100,000 canaries –44,134 in the province of Las Palmas and 52,136 in that of Santa Cruz de Tenerife–. The truth is that growth it has not been particularly strong in the last ten years if it is compared with the jump that the figures made from 2001 to 2011, years in which the population increased by 400,000 people. The rate has dropped in the same way that the birth rate has.
The Archipelago is the fourth Spanish region with the highest population growth
Even so, experts warn that the trend will continue in the future and that in just ten years the population residing in the 7,492 square kilometers of the Islands will reach 2.5 million people. There will be 300,000 more than now, at a growth rate of 30,000 per year on average.
Growth in the Archipelago is especially delicate, due to its speed and the limited space that the Islands have. The truth is that the Canary Islands is the fourth autonomous community with the highest population growth, only behind Andalusia, Catalonia and Madrid, which have a much larger area than the Islands. The new census brings the inhabitants of Spain to 47,400,798 as of January 1, 2021, with a growth of 584,882 people, 1.2%, compared to the previous one, carried out in 2011. Growth in the Canary Islands in the same period was 5%.
96,269
more canaries
- In ten years the population in the Islands has grown by 96,269 people, which corresponds to 5% more. In Spain the increase was 584,882 people, 1.2% more than in 2011.
When analyzing the data according to the age of the residents, the predictions of the experts are once again confirmed. The famous population pyramid has lost its shape as a result of the reduction in births and the increase in life expectancy. Now the pyramid has turned into a rhombus. The age group between 46 and 55 years is the most numerous in the Islands. The census reflects that 18% of the population is included in this group.
And this does not only happen in the Islands, it happens throughout the country. Between 2011 and 2021 the relative weight of the population over 64 years of age in Spain has gone from 17.3% to 19.7%. This means that the dependency rate of those over 64 years of age –which is the ratio between the population over 64 years of age and that of 16 to 64 years of age, ages considered to be active– increases from 0.26 to 0.30 in those ten years. Y the higher the percentage of the dependency ratio, the the greater the burden that the active population bears to maintain the population that depends on them.
13%
Foreign
- The INE census indicates that of the 2,178,924 people in the Canary Islands, 288,983 are of foreign nationality. Which represents 13% of the total.
When analyzing population growth, migration and the weight it has on the phenomenon is one of the issues that both politicians and experts have put on the table in recent months. The INE census indicates that of the 2,178,924 people in the Canary Islands, 288,983 are of foreign nationality. Which represents 13% of the total. The Italians (39,275), the English (26,678), the Germans (22,942) and the Venezuelans (23,269) are the most numerous.
The new census prepared by the National Institute of Statistics also dedicates a space to the analysis of the population according to the levels of study. The results in the Archipelago indicate that 24% of the population, which corresponds to one in four Canaries, has higher education. This figure is lower than the national average, which stands at 31.8%.
