SPAIN'S population swelled by 303,228 in 2018, according to figures that have just been released, with all bar four regions gaining inhabitants.
Census figures are only gathered, analysed and published for a given year when the following year is nearly, but not quite, over, meaning the numbers for 2018 are considered to be the most recent – those for 2019 will be released in the last few days of December 2020.
Only the northern coastal regions and Asturias and Galicia, the land-locked western region of Extremadura, and the centre-northern territory of Castilla y León saw a decline in their headcount.
During the worst of the financial crisis, Spain's population declined year upon year, but has started to climb again, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
The provinces, and single-province regions, which have gained the most inhabitants – over 12% - since 2010 are the Balearic Islands, Almería, Málaga, Madrid, and the southern Basque province of Álava, of which the capital is Vitoria.
Those whose headcount has remained approximately the same are Ciudad Real, Valencia, Tarragona, Lleida, Zaragoza, and La Rioja.
All the coastal provinces of Andalucía – or the entire region except Córdoba and Jaén – have seen a population increase since 2010, as have the provinces of Barcelona, Girona, all those in the Basque Country, Navarra, Toledo, the Canary Islands, and the Spanish-owned city-provinces of Ceuta and Melilla, on the northern Moroccan coast.
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