Spain has never had a high population density owing to its orography, but what population there is has been sliding out of Rural Spain.

The fact is that over half (53%) of the country contains only 5% of the nation’s population, giving it a population density of 12.5 persons per square kilometre, making it the lowest population density in Southern Europe.

A report containing this startling fact was handed over to the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Ramón Luis Valcárcel, with the idea of convincing the EU that when cohesion funds are handed out for the period of 2021-2027, these virtually uninhabited regions are taken into consideration.

The ‘deserts’ as far as inhabitants go are la Serranía Celtibérica, which comprises of provinces of Teruel and a large part of Zaragoza. Other empty areas are slices of Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla-La Vieja, La Rioja and Comunidad Valenciana. The Señorío de Molina (Teruel) has only 2.6 inhabitants per sq/km.

There is an upside for house seekers because house prices in these areas are rock bottom but they won’t stay that way for long because they are being snapped up, serving as the first rung on the ladder to home ownership.

This doesn’t help the population problem, however, because the new owners are moving there – there’s a lot of speculation. These villages lack Internet and other basic services, so moving there, even if your job is Internet based, is a problem.

(News: Spain)