Territorial Gross Disposable Household Income. 2020

Gross disposable household income per inhabitant decreased in almost all counties in Catalonia; L’Alta Ribagorça (−8.3%) and Aran (−6.1%) are the counties where it decreased the most. El Pla d'Urgell (1.4%) is the only county with positive growth and La Ribera d'Ebre and El Pla de l'Estany are the two counties where income remained stable (0.0%).

This decrease in household income was conditioned by the economic effects of the Covid-19 health crisis and broke the growth trend of the last 6 years.

In 2020, El Barcelonès (19,400 euros) exceeded the Catalan average by 10.4% (17,600 euros) and continued to be the Catalan county with the highest per capita income. It was followed by El Baix Llobregat (18,300 euros) and El Vallès Occidental (18,100 euros). In contrast, L'Alt Urgell and La Noguera had the lowest income (both with 13,800 euros).

If we compare the behaviour of the main components of income compared with the previous year, we can see that compensation of employees and gross operating surplus fell by 4.2% and 10.6%, respectively, while social benefits increased by 15.3% (including temporary layoffs with suspension of employment due to the effect of Covid-19). On the use side, social contributions increased by 0.4% and taxes decreased by 1.8%.

Compensation of employee continued to be the main source of household income (57.7%) and was the main component of income in all the counties. La Segarra and El Gironès were the counties with the highest proportion of income from wages (61.8% and 61.4%, respectively), while La Terra Alta (43.8%) and El Berguedà (48.6%) had the lowest proportions.

For the first time, social benefits (23%) were the second most important source of household income. In 36 counties, social benefits were the second most important income in 2020 (in 2019 they were the second most important in 18 counties) and El Berguedà stood out, where income from social benefits rose to 32.9%.

In terms of income from gross operating surplus, which represented 19.1% of household income, La Cerdanya was the county with the highest percentage (30.6%), followed by El Pallars Sobirà (27%).

In 2020, Matadepera (with 28,100 euros) was the municipality with more than 5,000 inhabitants and of the other county capitals with the highest per capita income, followed by Sant Just Desvern and Alella (26,800 euros and 26,400 euros, respectively), all with an income level above 50% of the Catalan average. At the other extreme, Lloret de Mar (11,400 euros) was the municipality with the lowest income per inhabitant in 2020, followed by Ulldecona (11,700 euros).

Compared with the previous year, most of the municipalities studied (397 of the 459) recorded a decrease in Gross disposable household income per inhabitant, 4 remained stable and 58 increased it.

The analysis of the distribution of household resources showed Guissona as the municipality with the highest percentage of income from compensation of employees (73.8%), followed by Els Pallarsos (69.4%).

In terms of gross operating surplus, La Vall de Boí (36%) and Batea (33.5%) are the municipalities with the highest percentages.

Finally, in terms of social benefits, La Pobla de Lillet is the municipality where the weight of this component over the total main income was the highest (43.1%) and it is the only one where it represented the main income of the households.