Balearic population growth to slow over this decade

PALMA
THE Balearic population is going to grow by 6.3 percent during the course of this decade to reach a total of 1.147'803 inhabitants by 2020 but, according to the report released by the National Statistics Institute yesterday, we are by no means talking about a population boom in comparison to the past decade.

The rate of growth in the Balearics will nevertheless be the second highest in Spain but the projected 6.3 percent growth figure is well below the 31.2 percent growth rate witnessed between 2000 and 2009 here in the Balearics.

During the later period, 258'752 people moved to the Balearics but between now and the year 2020, the institute has forecast that only 68'714 new residents will set up home in the Balearics.

BIRTH RATE
However, the projected Balearic population growth is double the national average which is also going to experience a significant downturn considering the Spanish population ballooned by 15 percent over the past decade. By 2020, the Spanish population is projected to stand at 47 million.

On average, the national population is going to grow by 124'591 inhabitants per year between now and the end of the decade.
According to the report, only Castilla-La Mancha is going to witness sharper population growth than the Balearics at a rate of around 6.4 percent.
It appears that one of the main reasons for the slowdown in growth in the Balearics is that the birth rate is going to drop while the number of inhabitants aged over 64 will account for nearly 25 percent of the local population by 2020.

RETURNING HOME
As have other parts of Spain, the Balearics has also seen a growing trend in immigrants, mostly South American, taking advantage of the government's repatriation aid packages and returning home because of the recession.

That said, nearly half of the new Balearic residents over the next nine years are expected to be immigrants. There has also been an increase in the number of European Union residents, in particular Britons, returning to the UK for health and financial reasons because of the drop in value of the Pound against the Euro and the increase in the cost of living in the Balearics.

Some regions of Spain are going to see their populations shrink.