VALÈNCIA / MADRID, 21 (EUROPA PRESS)
The Valencian Community has once again exceeded five million inhabitants, after increasing its population by 40,066 people during 2018, which stands at 5,003,769, according to official declared data from the municipal register on January 1, 2019 by autonomous communities and provinces that have been published this Friday in the Official State Gazette (BOE). The Valencian is the third autonomy whose population grows the most this year, behind Madrid and Catalonia.
According to the aforementioned census, whose provisional data was made public in the first quarter of the year, the number of inhabitants in Spain amounted to 47,026,208 inhabitants on 1 January this year – 0.6 percent more than the previous year – of which 23,042,428 were men, and 23,983,780 were women.
By provinces, Valencia registers 2,565,124 inhabitants; Alicante, 1,858,683 and Castellón, 579,962. All of them grow in population: Alicante is the most, with 1.08% more than in 2018; followed by Valencia, with a 0.67 and Castellón, with 0.53.
As for municipalities, the largest ones also increase their population. València gains 2,875 inhabitants and stays with 794,288; Alicante goes from 331,577 in 2018 to 334,877 in 2019; Elche grows by almost 2,000 people, from 230,625 to 232,517 and Castelló goes from 170,888 in 2018 to 171,728 in 2019.
The list of the largest municipalities in the Community is completed by Torrevieja (83,337), Torrent (82,207), Orihuela (77,414), Gandia (74,562), Paterna (70,195), Benidorm (68,721), Sagunt (66,140), Alcoi (58,994) , Sant Vicent del Raspeig (58,385), Elda (52,618) and Vila-real, with 50,893. All of them grow in population this 2018: Paterna exceeds 70,000 inhabitants for the first time and Alcoi barely adds 17 new inhabitants.
On the opposite side, the smallest municipalities in the Region lose inhabitants. The ten least populated in the Valencian territory are Castell de Cabres, with 17 inhabitants (two less than in 2018); Palanques, with 30 (one less); Sempere, with 34 (one less); Villores, with 39 (three less); Herbers, with 42 (seven less than in 2018); Famorca, with 47 (six less) and Vallat, with 49 (the same as in 2018).
Fuente la Reina is the first of the smallest to gain population, going from 49 in 2018 to 52 in 2019, while Higueras goes from 62 in 2018 to 54 in 2019, and Tollos wins one, from 56 to 57.
DATA AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL
In absolute terms, Castilla y León was the community most affected by the loss of population with a decrease of 9,616 inhabitants, followed by Asturias with 5,444, Extremadura with a drop of 5,153 and Galicia of 2,244. In percentage terms, the largest population decline corresponds to the Principality with -0.53%, followed by Extremadura (-048%); Castilla y León (-0.40%) and Galicia (-0.08%).
These data confirm the trend registered in these autonomous communities in 2018. However, this trend has been reversed in the case of Castilla-La Mancha, Aragón and Cantabria, going from losing registered to registering an increase of 6,056 (+0 , 30%), 10,563 (+0.81) and 849 (+ 0.15%) inhabitants, respectively.
The Community of Madrid was the one that registered the greatest increase in population with 85,315 more inhabitants (+ 1.30%), bringing the total figure to 6,663,394; followed by Catalonia with 75,152 more inhabitants and the Valencian Community with an increase of 40,066.
In percentage terms, the Balearic Islands (+ 1.21%), the Canary Islands (+ 1.21%), Murcia (+ 1.04%) and the Comunidad Foral de Navarra (+ 1.03%) have registered significant increases of over 1 percent.
By provinces, Asturias leads the largest population decline (-5,444 inhabitants), and in the case of Castilla y León all provinces except Soria have lost inhabitants. In Extremadura the fall occurred in the two provinces and in Galicia only in Lugo and Orense.
18 PROVINCES LOSE POPULATION
The provinces with population loss as of January 1, 2019 were: Jaén (-4,535); León (-3,745) and Ciudad Real (-3,339); Badajoz (-2,817), Cáceres (-2,336); Córdoba (-2,261) and Zamora (-2,010). They have also lost population, Albacete (-619); Ávila (-858); Burgos (-112); Cuenca (-893); Lugo (-1,740); Orense (-1,642); Palencia (-1,055); Salamancha (-1,354), Segovia (-213); Teruel (-435) and Valladolid (-305).
As for the provinces that have registered increases, apart from Madrid, Barcelona (+55,229 inhabitants) stands out; Malaga (+20,664); Valencia (+17.138); Murcia (15,389); Santa Cruz de Tenerife (+14,473); Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (11,231); Zaragoza (+9,882); Gerona (9,097) and Tarragona (8,762).
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