Population figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE) on Thursday indicate that the population of Mallorca is now greater than the population of the whole of the Balearics was twenty years ago.
The INE's reference date is April 1, 2024. On that day the population of Mallorca was 959,801. The Balearic population in 2004 was 912,964. Over the twenty-year period, Mallorca's population has risen by more than 200,000; it was 727,147 in 2004. The total population of the region is now 1,234,106.
Given the rate of population growth, the one million mark in Mallorca will be reached within three years. The Balearic growth has consistently outstripped that of other Spanish regions since the start of the century, and this has largely been because of immigration.
In 2004 there were 139,737 non-Spaniards in the Balearics. In 2024 this figure is 341,150. Over the same period the Spanish population has increased from 773,227 to 892,956. The foreign percentage of the total population has therefore risen from 15.3% to 27.6%. This is growth that has been in spite of the financial crisis and the pandemic, both of which had a moderating effect.
The nationality profile has changed over the years. Whereas Germans and British used to form the largest foreign groups, they are now behind Moroccans, Argentines, Colombians and Italians.
The population growth is why Balearic governments have been pressing for improved state financing arrangements. Infrastructure, health, education, the water cycle; these are just some issues for which there are stresses, on top of which there are the demands of the floating population. And perhaps above all, there is housing in what, along with La Rioja, is the smallest region of Spain by land area. The population of La Rioja, by contrast, is roughly a quarter of the Balearic population.