Canary Islands Its population increased by 25,994 inhabitants between July 2022 and July 2023 thanks to the pull of foreigners, who account for 73.5% of the demographic increase experienced by the Islands in the last year, while the national population accounts for 26.5 %. In absolute numbers of the nearly 26,000 new inhabitants, 19,109 were born outside the country and 6,885 are Spanish, including Canarians. The trend is the same at the national level since in Spain the population increase in the last twelve months was 537,611 inhabitants, of which 524,087 are foreigners, that is, no less than about 98% of the total.
From the 2,197,957 inhabitants that the Archipelago had on July 1, 2022, it has risen to 2,223,951 a year later, an increase of 1.18%, which is not one of the most significant in the ranking of autonomous communities. With updated data from the National Institute of Statistics, 1.9 million of the total are nationals and the foreign population living in the Islands amounts to 320,161 people.
Specifically, and referring to the second quarter of 2023, the INE estimates that the population grew in all the autonomous communities, as well as in the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. The greatest increases in relative terms occurred in the Balearic Islands (0.58%), Catalonia (0.51%), Madrid (0.45%) and the Valencian Community (0.44%). On the other hand, the smallest increase was registered in Extremadura (0.01%), Asturias (0.03%), Ceuta (0.06%) and Castilla y León (0.08%). The population behavior of the Canary Islands in the second quarter of the year compared to the first quarter of the year was a rise of 0.16%, below the national average, which was 0.28%, which means a slowdown in the growth in these last months of 2023.
island growth
The growth of the Canarian population by islands maintains the trend of population movements of recent times. Although the number of inhabitants increases in all of them, the capital islands and the most touristic ones increase more. The island that sets the standard is Tenerife, which is the one that has grown the most in the last year and is close to one million inhabitants. As of July 2023, Tenerife has 954,303 inhabitants compared to 941,281 a year ago.
The population growth of Tenerife has been the most significant in the Canary Islands in recent years. The island is, by far, the Canary Islands territory with the highest growth figures, adding 33,000 people to the register in just ten years. In 2012, the island’s residents numbered 898,680 and official population data for January 2022 indicated that the number had already reached 931,646. Now there are 23,000 more inhabitants. In that same period, the Archipelago increased its population by 59,357 people, so Tenerife assumed 55% of the total growth at that time. An important part of the increase experienced is precisely due to the foreign population that settles on the island, which is greater than on other islands such as Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura either Lanzarote.
Almost 98% of the increase in the Spanish population is due to foreigners
In the case of Gran Canaria there is growth but much less than in Tenerife. The round island has 864,576 inhabitants with the INE figures compared to 860,296 a year ago, that is, the growth experienced is about 4,000 more residents.
The eastern islands also increased their population along the same lines as Gran Canaria, between 3,000 and 4,000 more inhabitants. Lanzarote now has 161,378 residents and Fuerteventura has 124,769 inhabitants.
The western islands show an increase in population but stagnation continues to be the dominant trend in the three non-capital islands since the growth is insignificant. In the case of La Gomera the rise between July 2022 and July 2023 was 128 inhabitants to reach 22,293. In the case of The iron gains 269 inhabitants and adds 11,777 residents on the island.
Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura rise at a slower rate than the island of Tenerife
for his part The Palm, despite the adversities it has suffered in recent times such as the eruption of the volcano, it also gains residents. According to INE statistics there are 924 more inhabitants on the island compared to a year ago, which means a total population of 84,855 inhabitants.
Experts have warned that, in just ten years, the population residing in the 7,492 square kilometers of the Canary Islands will reach 2.5 million people. Now the figure reaches 2,223,951 inhabitants, meaning that there will be 300,000 more than at present, at a growth rate of 30,000 per year on average. Given the negative growth that the birth rate is experiencing in the Canary Islands, the population increase is supported by foreigners who come to live here, both those from European Union countries and non-EU countries, including those from Latin America.
