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Buildings. By number of floors. Counties and Aran, areas and provinces

Buildings with dwellings. By number of floors. Counties, areas and provinces Catalonia
Number of floors above ground
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 to 9 10 + Total
2011 288,901 530,797 204,972 64,458 43,710 25,664 14,171 13,331 6,459 1,192,463
Source: Idescat, based on the Census of Buildings INE's.
Note: Law 23/2010, of July 22, on the creation of the area of Penedès, divides Catalonia into eight territorial planning areas. This change implies that the data for the Metropolitan Area, Central Counties and Camp de Tarragona are not directly comparable with previous years.

Last update: December 19, 2013.

Methodological note

Definition of concepts

Building (Building census 2011)
Permanent construction, apart and independent, to be used as housing or for rural, industrial, service provision purposes or, in general, to perform any activity (administrative, comercial, industrial, cultural).
Dwelling (Building census 2011)
Enclosure structurally apart and independent which was constructed, reconstructed, transformed or adapted for residential purposes or it is the usual residence of somebody at the moment when de census is made. Enclosures that at the moment when the census is made are used for purposes other than residential buildings (for example, those which are used exclusively as establishments) are an exception.
Planta sobre rasant
Floor having the underlying pavement upper height determined by the sidewalk or the ground.

Methodological aspects

The Census of Buildings is the set of operations of collection, processing, evaluation and data analysis of existing buildings of a country with reference to a particular time or period. It is done every ten years to determine the number, geographic distribution and characteristics of the existing buildings on the reference date. In Spain, the Census of Buildings is a national operation, conducted by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

The Census of Buildings 2011 is a statistical operation that took place at the reference date of November 1, 2011 in conjunction with the Population and Housing Censuses 2011. It has been designed to collect comprehensive information of all the completed buildings that contain at least one dwelling, with enumeration of all properties located in them and determination of their basic characteristics.

The objectives of Census of Buildings are:

  • enumerate and geo-reference all buildings that contain at least one dwelling
  • determine the characteristics of buildings
  • enumerate all properties contained in each building
  • select the properties that will form part of the Population and Housing Survey
  • provide a georeferenced comprehensive directory of buildings that contain at least one dwelling and all its properties. Georeferencing allows the exact identification of buildings despite changes in the address and, consequently, their unambiguous identification.

The scope of the Census of Buildings 2011 comprises all the buildings (regardless of their primary use) that are completed and contain at least one dwelling, with enumeration of all properties located in them. That is, buildings containing no dwelling are not included. This is the main difference compared to previous censuses. The Census of Buildings 2011 is limited to buildings containing at least one dwelling, and provides no information on other buildings. In previous censuses only buildings used exclusively for agricultural or livestock were excluded. In this census are excluded, as well, buildings that contain no dwelling, regardless of use.

Buildings that after to be totally or partially demolished were reconstructed and were not topped out at the census date.

Additionally, were not included:

  • Buildings that were demolished and those that were in a ruinous condition and uninhabited.
  • Constructions at squares, footways or recreational facilities for selling drinks, tobacco, press
  • Buildings for exclusively agricultural production purposes that at the same time were not used for family, collective housing purposes or for activities other than agricultural production.

The variables included in Census of Buildings 2011 are the following:

  • type of building
  • number of properties in the building
  • year of construction
  • number of floors
  • building condition
  • kind of dwellings
  • facilities

Census of Buildings 2001 was conducted in conjunction with Population and Housing Census 2001, at the reference date of November 1, 2001. It includes buildings for housing, both family and collective, as well as buildings for purposes other than housing, with the exception of those exclusively used for agricultural production. One difference respect previous censuses is that it only counts completed buildings.

Censuses of buildings 1980 and 1990 comprised all buildings for housing purposes and for other purposes, except those for exclusively agricultural production. These censuses also comprised completed buildings and those that were under construction and topped out, that is, those that already got finished the general structure of the building and had covered the last floor. The following buildings were excluded:

  • Buildings that were demolished or were empty because of their ruinous condition
  • Buildings for exclusively agricultural production purposes

Unavailable information is represented using the symbol ":". When the value is lower than that of the minimum unit to be able to estimate the statistical operation or if it effects statistical confidentiality, the symbol used is "..".