At the beginning of this 21st century, Adeje had just over 14,000 inhabitants. Now, 23 years later, there are already more than 50,000, according to the latest municipal register that has just been published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). El adejero is the municipality of Tenerife –by far– the largest population added since 2000, a 72% increase. The trend is similar in the other southern municipalities with the most tourist activity on the Island.
The data corroborate a trend that was already seen at the beginning of this century: the North and the Metropolitan Area have handed over to the South as the demographic locomotive of Tenerife. So much so that the South is growing in this century at a rate that multiplies at least four times that of the other two large areas of the Island: 54%, 13% in the North and 8.5% in the Metropolitan Area.
The numbers are revealing. The other municipalities that have grown the most in population in this century are entirely on the southern slope, such as Adeje: San Miguel de Abona has gone from 7,315 inhabitants in 2000 to 22,606 in 2023 (+67.6%); Granadilla, from 20,323 to 54,942 (+63%); Arona, from 38,416 to 85,249 (+54%); Candelaria, from 13,294 to 28,694 (+53%); and Güímar, from 14,646 to 21,536 (+32%).
The southern towns are, in this way, only 80,633 registered from the Metropolitan Area (317,006 inhabitants compared to 397,639 from Santa Cruz, La Laguna, El Rosario and Tegueste). The 12 southern municipalities already account for 33.5% of the total population of Tenerife. If this proportion is followed, they will have more inhabitants than the Metropolitan Area in just five years.
The Metropolitan Area, where the first important urban centers of the Island emerged after the conquest of the Castilians at the end of the 16th century, is the one that stagnates the most. In these 23 years of the 21st century it has grown by 8.5%, which shows a transfer of population to the large southern dormitory cities (mainly Granadilla, Candelaria and San Miguel) as tourism was consolidated as the great engine of the island economy.
The particular case of the capital
Within the Metropolitan Area, the capital municipality is a particular case. According to the Municipal Register, the main administrative record in Spain that counts the residents recognized by each municipality, Santa Cruz de Tenerife had more inhabitants in 2000 (215,132) than now (209,395). The comparison, however, is misleading. Because? For what is known as the case of the ghost registry. The Chicharrera town lost 12,915 registered residents in one fell swoop after a discrepancy was detected in the data provided by the City Council in 2009.
The INE then assured that when the database of national identity documents of the Ministry of the Interior was crossed with that containing the municipal registers, incidents were detected in some municipalities. None was as enormous as the one found in Santa Cruz. The City Council at that time did nothing to correct the errors, so the INE had to adjust the figures in the years after 2009.
Even with this imbalance now corrected, the growth of the four metropolitan municipalities is below that experienced in this period by the 12 in the South and is also lower than that of the 15 in the North. And on the greenest side of Tenerife there are the only four municipalities that have been emptying, although very slowly, since 2000: Buenavista (-430), Garachico (-556), Los Silos (-387) and El Tanque (-216). One of them, Garachico, was the main port of the Island until 1706 when the Arenas Negras volcano devastated what became the most prosperous city of Canary Islands. There are hardly any archaeological remains left from that port boom in Garachico.
The push of Saint Ursula
The greatest northern demographic push has been carried out in the last 23 years by Santa Úrsula. Located in a strategic position between the Acentejo region and the La Orotava Valley, and despite its marked rural idiosyncrasy, Santa Úrsula has gone from having 10,529 inhabitants in 2000 to 15,285 in the latest Register of 2023 that has just been released by the INE. There is no increase (31%) more important than that experienced by the Santa Ursula town this century on a northern slope in which its 15 municipalities currently have 229,462 inhabitants, when they did not exceed 200,000 in the year 2000.
Santa Úrsula is followed by La Matanza (+23%), Puerto de la Cruz (+19%), El Sauzal (+18.6%) and Tacoronte (+15%) as drivers of northern demographic growth. And in addition to those that are losing population – the aforementioned Buenavista, Garachico, Los Silos and El Tanque –, La Orotava, Los Realejos and La Guancha are stagnating, with development levels below 10%.
The Metropolitan Area
The data from the Register of this century of the Metropolitan Area are distorted by the particular case of Santa Cruz. Its population growth rate would surpass that of the North if it were not for the capital’s ghost register. Because La Laguna, El Rosario and Tegueste are not rising at the rate of the South but are experiencing significant increases: the La Laguna municipality increases by 20.4% compared to the year 2000; the rosario, 29%; and the teguestero, 18.6%.
Tenerife will surpass the barrier of one million inhabitants in three years if the rate of population growth of this century is maintained. The latest Municipal Register that has just been published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) puts the current population of the Island at 944,107 inhabitants. There are 234,722 more residents than at the beginning of this 21st century, when the demographic balance gave the Island 709,385 people.
The growth has been 24.8% in these 23 years, at a pace that is not very accelerated compared to other Spanish communities. In this way and if the percentages are maintained, Tenerife will have 1,003,822 inhabitants in the year 2026. Of this population, 86% are nationals and 14% of residents are foreigners (131,587).
The main foreign communities on the Island come from Europe: 83,758, 64% of the total foreigners. The Italians (25,962), the British (14,709) and the Germans (9,445) stand out. Likewise, 31,955 citizens from America and 8,005 from Africa are registered on the Island.
