Spain nears 50 million residents as real population raises concerns

Spain, on the brink of 50 million: the figure that doesn't add up

How many people live in Spain? The official answer, according to the INE's Continuous Population Statistics, is close to 50 million. But the figure is growing at a rate of 200,000 people every four months, between 500,000 and 600,000 per year. At that pace, the 50 million mark will be crossed within months. The question is whether the country is prepared to absorb it.

A territory that can't take much more

The problem is not just the number, but where people settle. In a country where 80% of the territory is considered barely productive, the population is concentrated in less than 5% of the land. The comparison with Australia, with 27 million inhabitants in an area seven or eight times larger, illustrates the contrast. Distributing 50 million people is not the same as piling them up on the coast and in large cities.

Figures that go uncounted

Some analyses argue that the real population already exceeds 55 million. Adding the regularization processes, pending applications under the grandchildren's law and other groups would raise the figure by several million. Some even calculate that in the summer months, with the floating population of tourists, the country supports more than 70 million people. Official statistics, meanwhile, lag behind.

With 40 million, it has been said, the country would be booming. With 50 and heading towards 60, the question is not whether there are too many of us, but whether the productive model and the territory can withstand the next four-month period. The INE will keep counting. Reality, meanwhile, no longer fits in the spreadsheet.