The province in which the Catalan capital, Barcelona, is located has experienced a significant increase in population since 1996. In January 2023, the inhabitants of the province of Barcelona amounted to nearly *** million, which is also the highest figure registered during the period under consideration.

As of January 2025, Catalonia's population stood at over *************, making it the second most populated autonomous community in Spain. Catalonia had ******* inhabitants aged between 45 and 49 years old, the largest age group. Meanwhile, children aged zero to four years old totaled *******.

Població de Barcelona agregada per sexe i edat segons el registre del Padró Municipal d'Habitants a data 1 de gener de cada any

Population of Barcelona aggregated by sex and age by the Municipal Register of Inhabitants of January 1

In 2024, Madrid was the city with the most inhabitants in Spain. In that year, more than 3.42 million people lived in the city. Barcelona was the second-largest city with 1.69 million residents.

Població de Barcelona agregada per edat en grups de cinc anys segons el registre del Padró Municipal d'Habitants a data 1 de gener de cada any

Població de Barcelona agregada per nacionalitat (segons si és Espanyola, de la UE o altres) i sexe segons el registre del Padró Municipal d'Habitants a data 1 de gener de cada any

Madrid was the largest city in Spain in 2024, with around *** million inhabitants. Barcelona followed second, with nearly *** million people residing there. The most populated city in the Spanish islands that year was Palma de Mallorca.

As recorded by the source, Moroccans ranked as the foreign nationality with more residents in Spain in 2023, closely followed by Romanians. After years of losing its foreign population, Spain’s immigration figures started to pick up in 2015, with the number of people that moved to the Mediterranean country surpassing the number of foreigners that decided to leave.

A matter of balance The net migration rate of Spain changed its course mainly due to the great inflow of foreigners that move to reside in the Mediterranean country. Spain’s immigration flow slowed down after the 2008 financial crisis, albeit the number of foreigners that opted to change their residence saw a significant growth in the last years. In 2022, Colombians ranked first as the foreign nationality that most relocated to Spain, distantly followed by Moroccans and Ukranians.

Spain does not have the highest number of immigrants in Europe In recent years, the European Union confronted a rising number of refugees arriving from the Middle East. Migration figures show that Germany accommodated approximately 15 million foreign-born citizens, ranking it as the country that most hosted immigrants in Europe in 2022. By comparison, Spain’s foreign population stood slightly over seven million, positioning the Western Mediterranean country third on the European list of foreign-born population. Unfortunately, thousands of persons have died ore gone missing trying to reach Spanish territory, as more and more irregular migrants opt to use dangerous maritime routes to arrive at Southern Europe from Africa's coasts.

Most residents of Catalonia considered themselves equally Catalan and Spanish. This is the result of a survey conducted in March and May 2025 which revealed that approximately 37 percent of the population in this northern region identified Catalan and Spanish to the same degree. The share of the population that identified as more Catalan than Spanish or only Catalan, however, was also significant, with shares of 20 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Catalonia in SpainThe Catalan participation in the Spanish GDP was estimated at 20 percent in 2024. This figure maintained steadily over the last few years, with an average share of about 20 percent of the total GDP of the country. The average GDP per capita in Catalonia was significantly higher than that of the rest of Spain at 34,534 euros in 2022. During the same period, Spain’s average GDP per capita was 28.276 euros. As of 2024, Catalonia was the second most populous autonomous community in Spain with about eight million people. The Catalan language: a symbol of the region’s identityThe Catalan and Spanish languages coexist in the coastal region of Catalonia, both enjoying official and equal status. As of 2024, about 47 percent of the population of Catalonia considered Spanish their mother tongue, whereas about 40 percent reported being native speakers of Catalan. Despite the fact that the vast majority of books in Spain are published in Spanish, the Catalan language ranked second in the country’s editorial scene at about nine percent of book publications, revealing the weight of this language among other languages spoken in Spain. In fact, Catalan was one of the most translated languages in this country according to the latest studies.

London was by far the largest urban agglomeration in the United Kingdom in 2025, with an estimated population of *** million people, more than three times as large as Manchester, the UK’s second-biggest urban agglomeration. The agglomerations of Birmingham and Leeds / Bradford had the third and fourth-largest populations, respectively, while the biggest city in Scotland, Glasgow, was the fifth largest. Largest cities in Europe Two cities in Europe had larger urban areas than London, with Istanbul having a population of around **** million and the Russian capital Moscow having a population of over **** million. The city of Paris, located just over 200 miles away from London, was the second-largest city in Europe, with a population of more than **** million people. Paris was followed by London in terms of population size, and then by the Spanish cities of Madrid and Barcelona, at *** million and *** million people, respectively. The Italian capital, Rome, was the next largest city at *** million, followed by Berlin at *** million. London’s population growth Throughout the 1980s, the population of London fluctuated from a high of **** million people in 1981 to a low of **** million inhabitants in 1988. During the 1990s, the population of London increased once again, growing from ****million at the start of the decade to **** million by 1999. London's population has continued to grow since the turn of the century, and despite declining between 2019 and 2021, it reached *** million people in 2023 and is forecast to reach almost *** million by 2047.

In 2023, London was the leading European city tourism destination based on the number of bed nights. That year, bed nights in the United Kingdom's capital exceeded 78 million, denoting a sharp annual increase but not fully recovering yet from the impact of COVID-19. Meanwhile, Paris and Istanbul followed in the ranking in 2023, with roughly 52 million and nearly 30 million bed nights. What are the most visited countries in Europe? While the French capital came in second among leading European cities based on bed nights, France topped the ranking of the European countries with the highest number of inbound tourist arrivals in 2023, ahead of Spain, Italy, and Turkey. Meanwhile, when looking at European countries with the highest tourism receipts that year, Spain recorded the highest figure, with over 90 billion U.S. dollars, followed by the United Kingdom. How many international tourists visit Europe every year? In 2023, the number of international tourist arrivals in Europe grew significantly over the previous year, totaling over 700 million. This figure, however, remained below pre-pandemic levels. Overall, either before and after the impact of COVID-19, Europe was the region with the highest number of international tourist arrivals worldwide.

The average pre-tax income of the top ten percent earners in Spain was over 120,000 euros at purchasing power parity (PPP) as of 2024, almost nine times more than the average income of the bottom half earners. Looking at the distribution of national income in Spain, the earnings of the least affluent half of the population equated to 21 percent of the total country income in 2024, 0.1 percentage points less than one decade earlier. Moreover, the top one percent of earners in Spain accounted for over ten percent of the overall national income.

In 2022, the nationwide robbery rate in Spain was 133.65 cases per 100,000 of the population. This is a significant decrease from 2012 levels, when the robbery rate stood at 206 cases per 100,000 of the population.