Abstract
The rural–urban dichotomy is one of the most debated topics by the scientific community in territorial issues. In addition, many public entities and scientific studies have established the distinctive elements of rural and urban spaces by relating the decline of the rural ones with factors such as aging, low birthrate, the primary sector, unemployment, or poverty, among others. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to spatially study the current model of territorial organization of Spanish urban and rural municipalities as well as their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. To this end, GIS (Geographic Information System) tools were used to carry out a spatial autocorrelation (SA) analysis and to identify homogeneous groups of the variables considered. In conclusion, there are different demographic and socioeconomic realities in Spain, an urban one located on the coast with a positive situation and, on the other hand, a regressive reality composed of rural municipalities, among which there are villages whose situation is worrying, mainly located in the north of Spain.
Highlights
The depopulation of European rural areas, and in our case study, Spain, is a huge challenge and constitutes one of the most current issues of numerous disciplines [1]
They do not have high concentrations of unemployment rates and that of agricultural unemployment and low values per capita income. These areas with greater risk of depopulation still maintain higher incomes than other rural Spanish spaces that do not have such extreme demographic characteristics, as in the case of the southern part of the Peninsula (Andalucía and Extremadura) [79]. This is due to the fact that most of the population of the municipalities with the highest risk of depopulation are retired and have higher pensions than in the rural areas of the south, in which there is still no such aged people, but there is population of working age dedicated to an agricultural sector that is not very productive [80] and maintained with aid such as the agricultural subsidy or those of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
There is a reality characterized by the existence of large concentrations of population in the coastal areas of the country and around the capital Madrid as well as in the metropolitan areas from Valladolid and Zaragoza, where 87.8% of the Spanish population is concentrated in 1300 municipalities, which occupy 30% of the territory
Summary
The depopulation of European rural areas, and in our case study, Spain, is a huge challenge and constitutes one of the most current issues of numerous disciplines [1]. The problems of exodus, aging, remoteness, lack of educational facilities, labor market problems, decline in the number of young people, access to public services, lack of competitiveness, and economic innovation have been identified as the main elements of poverty in rural areas [4]. All of these negative shortcomings define regions located mainly in Eastern European areas, the Baltic States, and Southern Mediterranean countries (Greece, Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, Spain, and Southern Italy) [5]. It is clear that if current economic and demographic trends continue, an increasing number of regions can be expected to be classified as “less developed” [6,7]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
