Spanish Oddities
Spanish population set to grow by 2.7 million by 2017
By m.p.
Mar 23, 2008 - 6:37 PM

New figures from Spain’s National Statistics Institute estimate population growth of 2.7 million people by 2017, with all autonomous communities bar four – Asturias, Castilla y León, Galicia and the Basque Country – seeing an increase in the number of inhabitants. Population in the two autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla is also set to go down. Madrid and Cataluña will see the greatest growth, of around 700,000 people in each case, EFE reports.

The latest official population figure in Spain is 45,200,737, as of 1st January 2007.

The projected numbers show that women will outnumber men by around half a million, and that one of the largest population groups in terms of age will be the over 75s: 4,45 million people, accounting for almost 10% of the Spanish population. More than 1.5 million will be over the age of 85, and 2.38 million under four years old.