The valencian Population in Catalonia in the 21th century: socio-demographic and spatial analysis

Abstract

Since the late 19th century, Catalonia has been one of the main destinations for emigrants from the Autonomous Community of Valencia. In fact, Catalonia has now the largest community of people from that region in the country. The number of natives of Valencia registered in the Catalan census was 91,211 people in 1920, reaching its peak in 1930 with 126,165 people. In 1970 the growth stagnated with 109,636 people. Today, however, the group has declined to 61,769 people due to the mortality and the return migrations and in consequence, there are not many studies on this population in spite of its importance. This article analyses the socio-demographic characteristics of the valencian population registered in the census of Catalonia in 2011, and focuses in the differences between the migrants of the 20th century and those of the 21th, and their spatial distribution according to the continuous population census of 2013, with three concentration areas: the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, the Tarragona-Reus axis, and the regions bordering the Autonomous Community of Valencia.

Keywords: Immigrant population, valencian emigration, Catalonia, demography, census.