Castile and León Demography

With 2,528,417 inhabitants (January 1, 2007), 1,251,082 men and 1,277,335 women, the population of Castile and León represents 5.69% of the population of Spain, although its vast territory covers almost a fifth of the total area of the country. In January 2005, the population of Castile and León was divided, by province, as follows: Province of Ávila, 168,638 inhabitants; Province of Burgos, 365,972; Province of León, 497,387; Province of Palencia, 173,281; Province of Salamanca, 351,326; Province of Segovia, 159,322; Province of Soria, 93,593; Province of Valladolid, 521,661; and Province of Zamora, 197,237.

The autonomous community has a very low population density, around 26.57 inhabitants/km2, a record that is more than three times lower than the national average, which indicates that it is a sparsely populated and demographically decline, especially in rural areas and even in small traditional cities. The demographic characteristics of the territory show an aging population, with a low birth rate and mortality that approaches the state average.

In the year 2000, the population of Castile and León totalled 2,479,118 people, that is, 6.12% of the Spanish total. Its natural growth was one of the lowest in Spain: -7223 (-2.92 gross rate), as a result of the difference between the 25 080 deaths (10.12 of the gross rate) and the 17,857 births ( 7.20 gross rate). The number of inhabitants in 1999 was slightly higher (2,488,062), so that, despite the negative growth, the relative numerical stability is partly due to the increase in immigration: of 22 910 immigrants in 1999 it went to 24,340 in 2000. In that year, 59 children under the age of one year died.

The life expectancy is higher than the Spanish average: 83.24 for women and 78.30 for men, a superiority that in 1999 was repeated in the register, since women added 1 260 906 and the males 1 227,156. A study by the University of Porto (Portugal) cites Castile and León as one of the European regions where old people could expect to live longer.

In 1999, the age distribution gave the following results: 317,783 people from 0 to 14 years old; 913,618 between 15 and 39 years old; 576,183 from 40 to 59 years and 677 020 over 60 years.

The active population in 2001 was 1,005,200 and occupied 884 200 people, with which the unemployment was 12.1% of the active population. For sectors of the employed population, 10.9% worked in agriculture, 20.6% in the industry, 12.7% in construction, and 63,1 % in the services sector.

Castile and León Historical evolution

Many of the people of the territory, who devoted themselves mostly to agriculture and livestock, gradually abandoned the area, heading towards urban areas, much more prosperous. This situation was further aggravated at the end of the Spanish Civil War, with a progressive rural emigration. During the 1960s and 1980s, large urban centres and provincial capitals...

Castile and León Present-day population distribution

In 1960 the urban population meant 20.6% of the total population of Castile and León; in 1991 this percentage had risen to 42.3% and in 1998 it was approaching 43%, which indicates the progressive state of rural depopulation. The phenomenon is also reflected in the number of municipalities with less than 100 inhabitants, which was...

Castile and León Religion

Catholicism is the predominant religion in the community. According to the barometer of the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) conducted in October 2019, 76.8% of Castilian-Leonese are considered Catholics (43.2 Non-Practising and 33.6% Practising), non-believers 20.3% Actual attendance at a church is on average less than these figures show. According to the same study, only...

Castile and León Foreign population

As of 2018, the region had a foreign population of 123,575. The largest groups of foreigners were those of Romanian, Bulgarian, Moroccan and Portuguese citizenship.