Click to see a detailed map by areas: Greater Madrid ▪ Catalonia ▪ Andalusia ▪ Cantabrian and Basque coasts ▪ The peninsular northwest coast ▪ Northwest interior ▪ Northeast interior ▪ Balearic Islands ▪ Canary Islands
A university professor with a good knowledge of Spain was shocked that his country, England, had more population density than Spain. “I have visited it many times and what I have seen in Madrid and Barcelona has been a very urbanized, dense and vibrant environment. However, when I looked at the map of Spain from a bird’s eye view, the country seemed very empty”, says Alasdair Rae, Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Sheffield.
The most common measure of the population density of a country is the number of its inhabitants divided by the square kilometers of its area. A formula that in Spain gives 93 inhabitants per square kilometer, but which Rae found especially misleading. It is enough to analyze the distribution of the Spanish population on the map to realize that very densely inhabited population centers appear and are separated from each other by large sparsely populated areas. “Spain is a good example of a country in which the typical measure of population density can be more erroneous,” says the professor.
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He measured density only in populated areas, and from his calculations he obtained the average figure of 737 inhabitants per square kilometer. Another way he managed to see that the population concentration in Spain is singularly high was by dividing the map into small cells of 1 km on each side, and consulting Eurostat in 2018 he extracted how much population lived in each of them.
Across Europe, Rae only obtained 33 cells in which more than 40,000 people were concentrated: surprisingly, 23 of them were in Spain, 10 in France and none in the United Kingdom. The most inhabited cell in Europe, with more than 53,000 inhabitants, was found in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, in the metropolitan area of Barcelona.
With this idea in mind, he thought of a graphic way to show the phenomenon of the concentration of inhabitants in Europe. Instead of using the classic color scale to represent population density, he resorted to vertical bars, placed one for each one-kilometer cell, bars that he would draw as much taller as the more inhabitants the cell contained. Thus arose some peculiar 3D maps, full of fine skyscraper of people.
The result of the visualization work of the English professor shows in the case of Spain the existence of two clear demographic phenomena: on the one hand, it is seen how a huge volume of people is concentrated in large urban centers; on the other, the undeniable existence of large areas of land barely inhabited. Let us go through the characteristics of crowded Spain and empty Spain with several enlarged examples.
The great Madrid
The metropolitan area of Madrid concentrates the largest number of large populations in Spain: 10 of its municipalities exceed 100,000 inhabitants. But the influence of the city extends far beyond the 52 towns that compose it. The image shows how the large central population center is joined by intermediate populations of considerable size or in any case very close to that of other provincial capitals. go back up
Catalonia
Of all the Spanish metropolitan areas, Barcelona has the most municipalities: 165. In it, in addition to the capital, six other towns have more than 100,000 inhabitants. The concentration of the population near the sea is evident in this visualization, with a kind of wall that runs along a large part of the coastline of Catalonia. go back up
Andalusia
Unlike other autonomous communities, the second in extension and first in population shows a more homogeneous distribution in its territory. The presence of large conurbations in Seville, Malaga-Costa del Sol, Bahía de Cádiz, Granada and other large cities is joined by many other intermediate cities, among them the so-called inland agrocities. The visualization also shows a line of towns drawn by long stretches of the Guadalquivir riverbed. go back up
Cantabrian and Basque coasts
The image shows the enormous concentration of population in Bilbao and its closest surroundings (in which only Barakaldo exceeds 100,000 inhabitants), and to a lesser extent in most of the coastline. In contrast, inland cities such as Vitoria or Pamplona appear almost isolated, with very few important populations among them. go back up
The peninsular northwest coast
Two large areas stand out in the case of Galicia: the metropolitan area of Vigo-Pontevedra and that of A Coruña, with that of Ferrol very close. Contrasting the lack of important populations beyond the regional capital, Santiago, and those of the provinces of Lugo and Ourense. Towards the interior there is an important regional capital, Ponferrada, in the province of León. go back up
Northwest interior
The interior of the Peninsula, except for Madrid and some dispersed population centers, appears very depopulated. This image corresponds to the northwest quadrant. The urban area of Valladolid can be seen, made up of 17 municipalities, and to a lesser extent, those of other provincial capitals. Among them, few localities stand out on the immense moor. go back up
Northeast interior
The four provinces with the lowest population density in Spain appear, in whole or in part, in this capture: Soria, Teruel, Cuenca and Huesca. Between Madrid and Zaragoza, which are more than 300 kilometers apart, hardly any important towns appear. go back up
Baleares
On the islands, the enormous concentration of population around the bay of Palma stands out, with seven municipalities surrounding the autonomous capital, and the presence of other important centers in the rest of Mallorca. In Menorca, you can see the concentration around Mahón and Ciudadela, at each end of the island. go back up
Canary Islands
The visualization of Alastair Rae helps to see the enormous disparity of the population of the islands, where the northeast of Tenerife and Gran Canaria stand out as large urban centers. go back up
