Changing patterns of the population distribution in Spain

Abstract

The 1981 census has motivated this study, outlining changes in Spanish population patterns during the decade 1970–1981. For migration patterns the year 1975 may have been a significant turning point. As a consequence of the economic recession in the western world emigration is coming to an end; the interprovincial migration, too, is declining rapidly. In some provinces a remarkable change can be observed in the direction of migration flows. After more than 25 years the industrial regions of Spain are now losing population by migration, whereas rural provinces of the central highlands and of Andalusia exhibit some growth by migration for the first time. This is a result of return migration from abroad as well as from the industrial regions of Spain. For natural change three important dynamics overlap. First, a marked increase in natural growth from North to South is found. This pattern of natural change is strengthened or weakened regionally by age-specific selective migration. Lastly, both dynamics have recently been dominated by an overall decline of the crude birth rate in all of Spain since 1970.