Demographics

Soller population goes down because of free tunnel

The lifting of the toll has led to a reduction in resident numbers. | Lluc Garcia

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterSoller10/01/2019 17:57

More people de-registered with Soller town hall in 2018 than registered. This was the first time this had happened for years and it would seem to have been as a result of the Soller Tunnel toll having been scrapped at the end of 2017.

There were 741 new registrations but 880 people who came off the "padrón". These figures don't include births and deaths. In previous years, the positive balance had been as high as 317 in 2008, though it was as low as 27 in 2011.

As far as the town hall is concerned, the loss of 139 residents in 2018 was due to people who had registered with the town hall in order to qualify for the discount to use the tunnel but who, in reality, didn't actually live in Soller.

Between 2008 and 2018, 64.3% of new foreign residents over this period have continued to live in Soller. This contrasts with only 4.9% of new residents who had come from other parts of Spain.