The INE publishes the latest demographic data by area of the residents of the municipality, including factors such as age, sex and origin
How are your neighbors? It is enough to walk around the surroundings of the neighborhood to get an idea of what the composition of its population is in demographic terms. An abundance of children running around the streets may indicate that this is a young neighborhood. Or it is possible that the residents of the block are people that their family has known all their lives and that they are, therefore, older people, or on the contrary, it is an area with a multicultural character, where a strong incidence is noted. of immigration. A greater number of tall and adjoining buildings is also a symptom of a high population density.
All those population and demographic characteristics, which one can intuit through their own senses and impressions, are now black on white with the publication this week by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) of the 2021 data from the European Indicators project Urban (Urban Audit) relating to the municipality of Murcia. This collects statistical figures divided into geographical areas or sub-districts with between 5,000 and 40,000 inhabitants, which, in turn, allow comparisons to be made between these areas.
Population density
Free space south of Puerto de la Cadena
Before, all this was the countryside, although a little less than ten years ago: a first look at these statistics allows us to infer that the districts further south in Murcia, those that are past Puerto de la Cadena and that have a more rural character, They are the least populated. And not only because of its barely 12,604 inhabitants, in absolute terms, but also because in relative terms they have a population density of less than 35 inhabitants per square kilometer, compared to the 519 municipal average. In this case, it is an area that brings together the populations of Carrascoy, Corvera, Baños and Mendigo, Gea and Truyols, Sucina, Jerónimo and Avileses, Los Martínez del Puerto, Valladolises and Lobosillo.
Not with so much space, but also quite at ease, live the residents of the westernmost districts of the capital (Cañada Hermosa, Javalí Nuevo, Javalí Viejo, La Ñora, Guadalupe, Barqueros and Sangonera la Seca). And it is that its 24,960 inhabitants are distributed throughout the territory at a rate of 162 inhabitants per square kilometer.
At the other extreme are the inhabitants of the traditional neighborhoods to the west of the urban area (San Antón, San Miguel, Santa Catalina, San Nicolás, San Andrés, San Antolín and San Pedro). Its 27,169 neighbors occupy 1.24 square kilometers, which leaves the population density at 21,910, followed closely by the 17,625 of the subdistrict that groups the populous neighborhoods of the northwest of La Flota, La Fama, Vistalegre; and the 17,584 of its neighbors to its immediate south, those of San Bartolomé, Catedral, San Lorenzo, Santa Eulalia, San Juan, La Paz and Vistabella.
However, these are areas that, despite the constant population growth of the municipality, have been losing population in the last decade. This decrease has been absorbed by sub-districts such as the one that includes Santiago and Zaraiche, probably due to the development of the area around Juan de Borbón, the main area of urban expansion in the city, which has a population of around 12,000.
Sex
More men in the field; more women in the center
Although the rule dictated by logic in terms of gender is that of balance -as established by the municipal average- the three most densely populated areas also stand out for being the ones with the highest proportion of women, since around 53 % of its residents are female.
This data contrasts with the composition of the less densely populated sub-districts, where men make up more than half of the population, quite possibly due to the significant presence of workers linked to the agricultural sector, who could have settled in these areas without the accompaniment of a nuclear family.
Immigration
Balance with foreigners in agricultural areas and ‘resorts’
In fact, with regard to the native or foreign origin of the population, the areas with the largest foreign population are precisely those of the rural districts (with almost 41 out of every hundred, when the average is 12), quite possibly both because of the aforementioned impact on these areas of work in the countryside, in which many non-EU citizens carry out their activity, and because of the presence of ‘resorts’, which welcome residents from various European countries. However, about two of those 41 have already been born in Spain, despite not having the nationality. In the rest of the municipal areas, those born outside the country add up to more than people strictly with foreign nationality, which implies the assumption of Spanish citizenship by some of them.
Outside of rural areas, the highest percentage of residents from beyond the borders of the country is found in the area of El Carmen and Barriomar, something that is not very surprising, given the more than manifest multiculturalism that is perceived with just walk through these neighborhoods. In them, more than 27 out of every 100 residents came from outside Spain and 24 of them do not have Spanish nationality at the moment. The presence of foreigners is very little statistically perceptible in the westernmost districts of the capital, where those born abroad account for eight out of ten residents, although about six do not have nationality.
Age
Children in expansion zones; retirees in traditional areas
As far as the young residents are concerned, the districts in the southwest (Sangonera la Verde, El Palmar, San Ginés) and those further north (Santiago and Zaraiche, Zarandona, El Esparragal, Cobatillas and Monteagudo) are the ones with the higher proportion of infants. And it is that almost one in five inhabitants in these areas are under 14 years old, or put another way, they are still children. The opposite face is presented by the traditional neighborhoods – those of the West, the historic center and El Carmen -, perhaps more complicated for family life, where children under 14 are between 12 and 13 out of every hundred, when the average of the municipality is at 16.
In fact, these areas -except El Carmen-, which are among the oldest in the city, present, and it could not be otherwise, the largest number of retirees, with between 21 and 23 out of every hundred -compared to the average , which is also 16-, almost the same as in the central neighborhoods to the northwest of Segura (La Flota, La Fama and Vistalegre). They are precisely points where women presented a greater proportion, but we already know that of female longevity compared to that of males.
Fewer people per household and more neighbors living alone
The data collected at the municipal level by the INE for little more than five years are also eloquent in terms of the trends imposed by the new times on family nuclei. As the population of the capital of the Region, consolidated as the seventh in Spain by number of inhabitants, the total number of households has been growing since 2015, going from 151,993 to 162,014. However, the average size of these households has been decreasing slightly, after going from 2.88 to 2.81. This downward evolution does not prevent the figure from being higher than that registered in the country as a whole, where the average number of members of the coexistence nucleus is situated at 2.55. More striking is that the national trend in this aspect has been upwards in the last six years, since in 2015 the figure stood at 2.51.
In the municipality of Murcia, the proportion of dwellings with only one inhabitant is also increasing, since single-person households have gone from accounting for 23.53% to 24.16% in six years, either due to an increase in those who they embrace singleness as a way of life or because of the loneliness that more and more elderly face. These figures contrast again with those of the country as a whole, where those who live alone make up 28.27% of households, three points more than in 2015.
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