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| Population growth (Huffington Post, España) CLICK TO ENLARGE |
MADRID -- The population of Spain has been falling steadily since 2012 and the future does not look rosy, according to a recent article in El País. Recent forecasts by the Spanish Institute of Statistics (INE in its Spanish acronym) show that the country will lose up to 1 million inhabitants over the next 15 years (total population on January 1, 2014: 46,507,760). If the demographic tendencies continue as they are, some 5,6 million people will have been lost over the next 50 years. That would take us back to the population of 2000, approximately. There are several consequences to that loss.
Fewer inhabitants
This would be the result of fewer births and more deaths. The economic consequences would be close to catastrophic: less tax money collected, so less money to take care of the older population (pensions, hospitalization, medical facilities, etc). This would bring about a significant downturn in purchasing power, which in turn would impact the country's entire economy.
