Statistics on Degree of Urbanisation. 2018-2021
According to the population on 1 January 2021, the majority of Catalonia's population (60.6%) lives in cells classified as urban centres, with high density; 28.5% live in cells classified as urban clusters, with moderate density; and 10.8% live in rural grid cells, with mostly low density.
Idescat publishes the distribution of the population of Catalonia on 1 January 2021 on a grid that divides the territory into 1 km2 cells (standard European grid) and describes the urban-rural continuum of the territory, according to the degree of urbanisation, considering criteria of population size, density and contiguity.
The results of the degree of urbanisation are also published by municipalities and, for the first time, by census tract groups and census tracts.
In 2021, 72.5% of the municipalities in Catalonia are classified as rural areas (or sparsely populated areas), 21.7% as towns and semi-dense areas (or areas of intermediate density) and 5.8% as cities (or densely populated areas).
As far as population density is concerned, the census tract groups with the highest densities are in the city of Barcelona and its conurbation. Thus, 5 of the 10 census tract groups with more than 70,000 inhabitants/km2 are in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, 4 in Barcelona and 1 in Santa Coloma de Gramenet.
In the municipality of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, census grouping 7 (La Pubilla Casas - Can Vidalet) registers the highest density (93,476 inh./km2), followed by L’Hospitalet de Llobregat 11 (La Florida - Parc dels Ocellets), L’Hospitalet de Llobregat 8 (La Pubilla Casas - la Bòbila), L’Hospitalet de Llobregat 10 (La Florida - Plaça de la Llibertat) and L’Hospitalet de Llobregat 19 (La Torrassa - Plaça del Vidre).
In the municipality of Barcelona, the maximum density is registered in the Raval, in the census tract groups Barcelona 5 (Ponent), with 109,052 inh./km2, followed by the census groups Barcelona 3 (La Riereta), Barcelona 4 (El Pedró) and Barcelona 159 (La Sagrera Alta).
In the municipality of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, census group 3 (Can Mariner) has the highest density, with 79,642 inh./km2.
Among the municipalities that have census tract groups with densities between 60,000 and 70,000 inh./km2, in addition to the above, there is Badalona, to census group 16 (La Salut Centre), Sant Feliu de Llobregat, to census group 2 (La Salut) and Salt, to census group 3 (Nucli Urbà Nord-oest).
For each of the territorial administrative units (municipalities, census tracts) the DEGURBA statistics provide information on population, area and density, as well as the percentages of the population residing in grids classified as urban centres, urban clusters, and rural cells. These results can be consulted on interactive maps.
Idescat provides the 1 km2 grid in shapefile format with the population and the classification of each cell according to the degree of urbanisation (urban centres, urban clusters, and rural grid cells). The classification of municipalities, census tract groups and census tracts by degree of urbanisation (cities, semi-urban towns and areas and rural areas) is published in CSV and shapefile format. The municipal results of the DEGURBA classification for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 have been revised.
The results for the year 2021 and the revised series of DEGURBA values for the municipalities for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 are presented.