The Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) was established by the Spanish Government in 2013. A member of the EU's network of independent fiscal institutions, its main purpose is to oversee the sustainability of public finances. Its latest report concerns healthcare and education in Spain's regions, a key conclusion being that immigration is causing a significant increase in spending that could jeopardise the sustainability of certain regional financial systems, the Balearics being one of these.
The report indicates that between 2016 and 2023, demographic changes in the Balearics, the Canaries, Catalonia, Madrid and Valencia contributed to an increase in healthcare spending over and above an average increase across Spain's regions of 5.2%. At least one-fifth of the increase was clearly attributable to population growth.
It's the same with education, spending in the Balearics having increased more in relative terms than other regions over the 2016-2023 period. More than 70% of the annual Balearic budget is social spending - education, healthcare, social services.
Since the start of the century, the population of the Balearics has grown by 386,138, 80% of this growth having been due to immigration from other countries. AIReF highlights the fact that this population growth is exceeding the region's financing capacity, a point that has consistently been made by regional governments critical of the Spanish Government's system of regional financing.
The report follows one from the Cercle d’Economia de Mallorca think tank that was published in April and which concluded that the Balearics were experiencing "very intense, sustained, and persistent" population growth, placing it at the top of the Spanish national scale in this regard. "This growth will have serious repercussions for health, education, social and housing issues, as well as energy consumption, waste production and the need for water resources".