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Overageing Spain: One in five people are now over 65

New research has revealed the degree to which the Spanish population is ‘overageing’, as well as dispelling the myth that the majority of the country's seniors live in so-called 'Empty Spain'.

Published: 2 November 2023 11:23 CET
Overageing Spain: One in five people are now over 65
Two in 10 people in Spain are over 65. Photo: Pixabay

Spain is now home to 10 million over 65s – which means two out of every 10 people in the country are of retirement age or older.

Even more surprising is the fact that there are more elderly people living in the two biggest cities of Madrid and Barcelona than there are in all small rural municipalities with dwindling populations.

These are the findings of a recent report by Spain’s Higher Centre for Scientific Research (CSIC), which shows that by 2040, over-65s may represent almost 30 percent of the population.

In Madrid and Barcelona, there are approximately one million elderly people; compared to the 765,446 who reside in the 6,000 rural municipalities of Spain.

Therefore, there are around 250,000 more elderly people in Barcelona and Madrid than in the sum of more than 5,000 municipalities with less than 2,000 inhabitants throughout the country.

While there may be more elderly people living in Spain’s two biggest cities than in villages that fall under the category of ‘Empty Spain’, it’s also true to say that people living in the countryside are likely to be older because of the exodus of young people from rural villages.

A total of 2.6 million people live in rural areas, which means that almost three out of every ten (28.4 percent) are over 65 years old.

By region, there are ten autonomous communities with an ageing rate higher than the national average.

Asturias comes in first place with 27.6 percent of people over 65. This is followed by Castilla y León (26.22 percent), the Basque Country (26.12 percent), Cantabria (23.07 percent), Aragón (22.09 percent), La Rioja (21.52 percent), Extremadura (21. 49 percent), Navarra (20.27 percent) and Valencia (19.97 percent).

READ ALSO: Older and more diverse – What Spain’s population will be like in 50 years

The research also highlights the dramatic increase in the number of octogenarians and centenarians in Spain – most of them women.

People aged 80 or over now represent 6 percent of the population. There are also almost 20,000 people aged one hundred or older in Spain – 1,600 more than last year.

“The rural world continues to depopulate and the extinction of the oldest generations will accelerate this depopulation process in the coming decades,” the report states, which also points out the “very low” proportions of children in rural areas, especially compared to larger towns.

Compared to other EU countries, Spain is the fourth country with the highest number of elderly people, only behind Germany, France, and Italy, but when it comes to the proportion of the population who are older, it comes in seventh place.

According to the Bank of Spain: “Population ageing is one of the greatest structural challenges facing the Spanish economy. Foremost among its multiple effects is its contractionary impact on labour supply, which will foreseeably have major implications on both the functioning of the labour market and the potential growth or sustainability of public finances”.

The report also highlights several projections for the future of Spain. It claims that there will be an estimated 14.2 million elderly people by 2040, which would represent 27.4 percent of the Spanish population which, by then, would be 52 million inhabitants (4.5 million more than now).

READ ALSO: Growing number of foreigners drives Spain’s population rise

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MONEY

Spain’s wealth disparity grows as the young get poorer and retirees richer

New data released by the Bank of Spain has revealed that the difference in wealth between Spanish baby boomers, millennials and Gen Z keeps growing.

Published: 23 May 2024 11:20 CEST
Spain's wealth disparity grows as the young get poorer and retirees richer

Wealth disparity in Spain continues to widen, with the young becoming poorer and older Spaniards and retirees enjoying higher levels of wealth than before. This is according to findings from the Survey of Household Finances report by the Banco de España.

In headline terms, the report reveals that the average net wealth in Spain in 2022 stood at €309,000 and the median net wealth €142,700.

This translates to average growth of 3.7 percent compared with 2020 levels, but median wealth rose by just 0.5 percent in that period. This represents slower growth than during the 2017-2020 period (4.8 percent and 6.8 percent respectively).

READ ALSO: Will there be no public pensions in Spain in the future?

However, the most striking aspect of the report was the growing disparity between older and younger Spaniards.

Dubbed the ‘generation gap’ by sections of the Spanish press, this wealth disparity has widened over the last five years, rewarding pensioners and leaving the under 40s, the only group to lose wealth overall between 2017 to 2022, increasingly behind when it comes to both net and median wealth, but also asset ownership.

But some groups in Spain saw significant increases in wealth. “Median wealth increased substantially in households in the top two deciles of the income distribution (11.4 percent and 12.5 percent, respectively), in older households (19 percent), in those where the head of the family has a university education and across the net wealth distribution,” the report stated.

The younger generations, however, didn’t do so well. Those between 20 and 40 years of age have gone from a median net wealth of €96,700 in 2020 to €86,100 in 2022.

On the other hand, Spaniards between 60 and 80 – a high percentage of whom are pensioners – saw the most notable rise in average wealth, with a net increase of €51,600.

As for the rest of the age brackets, those under 20 years of age had the lowest wealth levels overall. Median wealth went from €45,900 in 2020 to €38,800, a loss of €7,100.

Though the report did highlight the connection between educational levels and higher average income, it also pinpointed asset ownership as a major driver of wealth disparity.

READ ALSO: What’s considered a decent salary in Spain?

According to the report, wealth in Spain remains concentrated in ‘real assets’, accounting for 78.9 percent of total assets. Of these, property is by far the most significant, accounting for 52.9 percent of the value of real assets for all households and 41.7 percent of the value of total assets at the end of 2022.

Clearly, with rising property and rental prices around Spain and high youth unemployment rates, it is increasingly difficult for younger Spaniards (meaning up to age 40) to get on the property ladder and become asset holders.

Overall, average wealth levels fell in younger households (defined as under 45 years of age), households headed by self-employed people, households headed by people without a university education, and households that do not own their own home.

This comes in stark contrast to older and retired Spaniards who not only receive pensions, but are largely homeowners, have been for some time, and likely bought their properties some time ago when they were far cheaper as a proportion of income.

The report’s findings come amid ongoing concerns about the medium to long-term demographic future of Spain. This is particularly centred on the public pensions system, with worries that the an ageing population and flatlining birth rates, combined with the imminent retirement of the baby boomer generation, means that Spain could need millions of foreign workers to prop up its pensions system in the coming decades.

READ ALSO: Spain needs 25 million foreign workers to keep its pensions afloat

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