Little Britain - Pollensa and Alcudia

The increase may owe something to the Brexit effect of registration, and one has to take the number as being reliable. The town hall should, after all, be capable of adding up; it can’t be that difficult a task.

If one takes this to be reliable, what can one say about figures? According to the Balearic government’s Ibestat website, there were 716 British residents of Pollensa in 2020. A difference of 161 may be explained by when the census was conducted, as population stats are usually retrospective.

The 716 could therefore have been on the padrón at the end of 2019. However, there is an alternative source, which is the Foro Ciudad website. This draws on figures from the National Statistics Institute (INE), which in turn relies on the padrón for its numbers. In 2020, there were 687 Britons, 67 more than in 2019.

Population figures, depending on source, invariably do seem to differ. Pollensa is no exception in this regard. But if 996 is taken as accurate, one can see how much larger the British community is compared with Alcudia.

The most recent figure for the total population of Alcudia is 20,651. According to Ibestat, the 2020 British population was 384, although Foro Ciudad says 395. Either way, I am quite surprised; I would have thought that it was greater.

As a percentage of the foreign population, the British were fourth in Alcudia, says Foro Ciudad/INE - 5.7%, behind Colombians 16.1%, Argentines 11.2% and Moroccans 9.7%. For Pollensa, the British percentage (the highest) was 16.5%, with Argentines second on 11.4% and Romanians on 9.4%.