Second fastest population growth in Spain

The Balearics had the second fastest rate of population growth last year.
While the population declined in ten regions of Spain last year, in the Balearics, the population grew by 3.9 per cent, only Santa Cruz de Tenerife saw its population balloon higher with a 4.6 per cent growth rate. According to the latest set of figures, the population of Spain was 41 million last year, 1.5 per cent higher than in the year 2000. The Balearics experienced the second highest rate of growth with the population growing by 36.997 people.0 At the end of the year 2000, the Balearic population was 845.630, over the course of last year, the population grew to 876.627. The figures were collated on December 31 last year in co-ordination will municipal records, the National Statistics Institute and central government. The latest set of figures match population forecasts drawn up last year. The National Statistics Institute has concluded that by the end of 2005, the population in the Balearics will have risen by 100'000 people, taking the total to around 950'000. Fuelling the population growth is immigration and the high birth rate in the foreign resident community. The birth rate in the foreign community is three times that of Balearic families. The last study carried out in 2000, discovered that of nearly 12 per cent of babies born in the Balearics, either the mother or father are foreign while a further five per cent were born to foreign parents. In 2000, on average a baby was born in the Balearics per 92.88 inhabitants, but in the Spanish community, the birth rate was one per 100.41 inhabitants and the foreign community one child per 37.02 people; so the birth rate in the foreign community is 2.7 times higher than the Spanish community. The statistics also reveal that on average, Moroccan mothers in the Balearics, give birth to 4.3 children.