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 5.8 million, which is also the highest figure registered during the period under consideration.

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Barcelona, Spain metro area from 1950 to 2025.

Demographic indicators. Population density (inhabitants / ha) of the city of Barcelona

Spain Population: Catalonia: Barcelona data was reported at 5,606,913.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 5,576,037.000 Person for 2016. Spain Population: Catalonia: Barcelona data is updated yearly, averaging 5,416,447.000 Person from Dec 1997 (Median) to 2017, with 21 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 5,606,913.000 Person in 2017 and a record low of 4,666,271.000 Person in 1997. Spain Population: Catalonia: Barcelona data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Statistics Institute. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Spain – Table ES.G001: Population: at 1st of January.

As of January 2025, Catalonia's population stood at over eight million, making it the second most populated autonomous community in Spain. Catalonia had 682,998 inhabitants aged between 45 and 49 years old, the largest age group. Meanwhile, children aged zero to four years old totaled 290,941.

Barcelona is a popular tourist destination among young adults. In 2024, around one-third of adult travelers in the Spanish city were between 25 and 34 years of age, according to a survey. Moreover, around 70 percent of Barcelona's visitors interviewed that year were leisure travelers. What is there to do in Barcelona? Barcelona’s architecture, strongly characterized by the work of Antoni Gaudí, is one of its most attractive features for visitors. The architect’s most famous project, the Basilica of the Holy Family – most popularly known as “La Sagrada Familia” – was the second most visited site in Barcelona in 2021, behind another of his constructions, the Parc Güell. Other popular activities among Barcelona’s visitors are going to the beach, shopping, enjoy the city’s gastronomy, and taking part in sports events. Accommodation in Barcelona With the considerable growth of tourism volume in Barcelona in the past decades, came the expansion of the city’s lodging industry. In 2022, the number of hotel rooms available in Barcelona increased by two percent versus 2019, reaching the highest number since 1990. Hotel accommodation is, nonetheless, only a part of the diverse lodging offer in the city.

With over seven million inhabitants, Madrid ranked as the most populated province in Spain as of 2025. In the second place was Barcelona, with a population of almost six million people. Only 14 out of the 52 Spanish provinces had over a million inhabitants at that time.

Population of Barcelona aggregated by group of nationality (Spain, part of EU or other) and sex according to the Municipal Register of Inhabitants on January 1 of each year

Table of INEBase Barcelona: Population by municipality and sex. Annual. Municipalities. Official population figures of the Spanish Municipalities: Revision of the Municipal Register

Barcelona population projected based on the Municipal Register of Inhabitants as of January 1 and in the growth scenarios of Idescat (Institut d’Estadística de Catalunya). The projection base corresponds to the year of the name of the resource

Population: Residents: Northeast: Rio Grande do Norte: Barcelona data was reported at 4,002.000 Person in 2018. This records a decrease from the previous number of 4,064.000 Person for 2017. Population: Residents: Northeast: Rio Grande do Norte: Barcelona data is updated yearly, averaging 4,036.000 Person from Jun 1992 (Median) to 2018, with 24 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 4,238.000 Person in 2006 and a record low of 3,509.000 Person in 1995. Population: Residents: Northeast: Rio Grande do Norte: Barcelona data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. The data is categorized under Brazil Premium Database’s Socio and Demographic – Table BR.GAA047: Population: by Municipality: Northeast: Rio Grande do Norte.

The number of ferry passengers in the Spanish city of Barcelona increased by nearly nine percent in 2023, reaching also the highest figure since 2010. In total, Barcelona's port handled close to 1.7 million ferry passengers in 2023.

Barcelona city areas with the highest population exposed to the impact of heat by age groups

Aggregate data per housing block of the city of Barcelona, with information derived from local population, urban planning and building registers, among others

Population of Barcelona aggregated by continent of birth, sex and five-year age groups according to the Municipal Register of Inhabitants on January 1 of each year

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Barcelona-Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela metro area from 1950 to 2025.

The number of cruise passengers handled in the port of Barcelona increased to approximately 3.7 million in 2024, the highest figure ever recorded. In comparison to 2019, the cruise passenger traffic in that Spanish port increased by around 17 percent. Barcelona: among the top Spanish cruise destinations With 807 cruise ship calls, Barcelona handled the third-largest number of cruise vessels in Spain in 2022, only after the Canary Islands’ ports. As a result, Barcelona was the leading Spanish cruise tourist hub that year, registering a difference of less than half a million passengers with that insular autonomous community. The recovery of cruise tourism in Spain after COVID-19 In 2022, Spain's tourism made a strong recovery from the pandemic, although monthly cruise passenger numbers remained below 2019 levels. October stood out with over 1.2 million cruise travelers in Spanish ports. Meanwhile, Barcelona saw a 63 percent increase in ferry passengers, reaching a decades-high of nearly 1.6 million, and over 800 cruise ships, a significant rebound from the previous year, which had been heavily impacted by the pandemic.

The number of hotel rooms in the Spanish city of Barcelona at the end of 2023 amounted to approximately 39 thousand. This figure represents a slight decline from the previous year, though remaining above the previous years.

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In 2024, over five percent of residents of the Spanish city of Barcelona considered tourism to be the main problem of the city, which is more than double the figure recorded in the previous years, when the COVID-19 pandemic affected the tourism sector worldwide.