Spain: Rural-Urban Migration

• Core-periphery growth in Spain has accelerated to such an extent in recent years that the Celtiberian Highlands, a rural region east of Madrid, has been all but abandoned.
• Following decades of depopulation, just 8 people per square kilometer now remain in one of Europe's least population areas called the Celtiberian Highlands, where the population density is now as low as Lapland in the cold far north of Finland.
• Provinces e.g Terual and Soria have 600 villages with fewer than 100 people and an average age of 57.
• High rural unemployment means that young people continue to seek out new opportunities in Madrid and Barcelona (important hubs in the global economy)
• Spain's low birth rate means rural recovery is unlikely.
• When local schools shut, a threshold or tipping point is often reached in Celtiberia's villages from which there is no return.