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Population (in thousands), 2023: 47,912
Annual Population Growth Rate (%), 2023: 0.0%
Life Expectancy at Birth, 2023: 84 years
Share of Urban Population (%), 2023: 82%
Annual Growth Rate of Urban Population (%), 2020-2030: 0.2%
Net Migration Rate (per 1,000 population), 2023: 2.5
Share of Household Income, 2015-2023:
– Bottom 40%: 19%
– Top 20%: 40%
– Bottom 20%: 6%

Notes: Share of household income – Percentage of income received by the 20 per cent of households with the highest income, by the 40 per cent of households with the lowest income and by the 20 per cent of households with the lowest income.

Source: United Nations Children’s Fund, The State of the World’s Children 2024: The Future of Childhood in a Changing World – Statistical Compendium. UNICEF, Nov. 20, 2024.

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Life expectancy at birth, 2021: 83.2 years
Share of the population aged 65 and over, 2021: 19.8%
Share of the population aged 65 and over, 2050: 30.8%
Share of the population aged 80 and over, 2021: 6.1%
Share of the population aged 80 and over, 2050: 11.2%

Source: OECD (2023), Health at a Glance 2023: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, doi.org/10.1787/7a7afb35-en.

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Population, Midyear 2022: 47,558,630
Population Density (Number of Persons per Square Kilometer): 94.67
Life Expectancy at Birth, 2022: 83.91
Projected Population, Midyear 2030: 47,076,573
Percentage of Total Population Aged 65 and Older, Midyear 2022: 20.27%
Projected Percentage of Total Population Aged 65 and Older, Midyear 2030: 24.67%
Projected Percentage of Total Population Aged 65 and Older, Midyear 2050: 36.55%

Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2023). Data Portal, custom data acquired via website. United Nations: New York. Accessed 12 May 2023.

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“The Spanish population has increased 12% between 1995 and 2005, mainly due to a strong immigration flow, stagnated between 2005 and 2010, experiencing a slight decline until 2016. Fertility rates remained low throughout the period, with a slight increase between 2000 and 2005, still well below the replacement rate of the population. Further, population aged 65 and above has steadily increased over time, reaching 19.2% in 2016 (Table 1.1). Notably, in 2015 there were more deaths than births, a phenomenon only seen before during the 1918 flu pandemic and the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War.

“The economic and financial downturn resulted in a decrease of the foreign population, activating a migratory outflow of Spanish people, which has led to a negative migratory balance since 2011 until 2015. The sharpest emigration flow occurred in 2009, with a relative reduction of 34.4% in a year when almost 200 000 people left the country. Concurrently, the emigration flow increased until 2013, with 532303 individuals leaving the country in 2013. Notably, the flow of Spanish people leaving the country has steadily grown until 2016, with more than 556 000 people leaving since 2009. The year 2016 witnessed a net reduction of 23540 Spanish people, whereas the foreign population increased by 112666 individuals (INE, 2017b).

“The official language is Spanish, also called Castilian, which coexists with other official languages at regional level, including Basque, Catalan and Galician.”

Source: Bernal-Delgado E, García-Armesto S, Oliva J, Sánchez Martínez FI, Repullo JR, PeñaLongobardo LM, Ridao-López M, Hernández-Quevedo C. Spain: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2018;20(2):1–179.

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World Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems and policies in the US and sixteen other nations.

Page last updated October 13, 2025 by Doug McVay, Editor.