In 2007 Spain officially reached 45.2 million people registered at the Padron municipal, an official record analogous to the British Register office. Spain's population density, at 89.6/km sq (231/sq. mile), is lower than that of most Western European countries and its distribution along the country is very unequal. With the exception of the region surrounding the capital, Madrid, the most populated areas lie around the coast.

The population of Spain doubled during the twentieth century, due to the spectacular demographic boom by the 1960s and early 1970s. The pattern of growth was extremely uneven due to large-scale internal migration from the rural interior to the industrial cities during the 60s and 70s. No fewer than eleven of Spain's fifty provinces saw an absolute decline in population over the century. Then, after the birth rate plunged in the 80s and Spain's population became stalled, a new population increase started based initially in the return of many Spanish who emigrated to other European countries during the 70s and, more recently, it has been boosted by the large figures of foreign immigrants, mostly from Latin America (38.75%), Eastern Europe (16.33%), North Africa (14.99%) and Sub-Saharan Africa (4.08%). In 2005, Spain instituted a 3-month amnesty program through which certain hitherto undocumented aliens were granted legal residency. Also some important pockets of population coming from other countries in the European Union are found (20.77% of the foreign residents), specially along the Mediterranean costas and Balearic islands, where many choose to live their retirement or even telework. These are mostly English, French, German, and Dutch from fellow EU countries and, from outside the EU, Norwegian.

Most populous urban regions
1. Madrid 5,943,041
2. Barcelona 5,327,872
3. Valencia 1,623,724
4. Seville 1,317,098
5. Malaga 1,074,074
6. Bilbao 946,829

additional information from Wikipedia

04/18/08 by visitEarth
Tags: Spain, demographics