Spain Population

Spain combines very low fertility with rising life expectancy, a recipe for rapid ageing held in check mainly by immigration. The rural interior has hollowed out so dramatically that the phenomenon has its own name, the emptied Spain, as people concentrate in a handful of cities and along the coast. Without continued migration the population would already be in clear decline.

Spain is home to about 47.9 million people in 2026, the 32nd largest population of any country. Set in Southern Europe, its demographic path this century turns on the balance of births, deaths and migration. Population density stands at about 95 people for every square kilometre of land.

The peak is already behind Spain: its population maxed out at about 47.9 million near 2024 and is contracting. By 2050 the UN expects around 45.0 million people, and by 2100 about 33.2 million.

Half of Spain is currently younger than about 45, but by 2100 the median age is projected to reach around 52, while life expectancy, near 84 years, keeps rising. An older population gradually reshapes the labour force, pension systems and healthcare demand.

At about 1.22 births per woman, Spain has one of the world's lowest fertility rates, well under the replacement level of around 2.1. Immigration is a meaningful contributor, bringing in more people than leave in a typical year.

These figures follow the UN's medium variant, the most widely cited scenario. The low and high variants, driven mainly by differing fertility assumptions, fan out into a wide range by 2100, so treat each number as a central estimate rather than a precise forecast.