Population and Housing Census. 2023. Relation to economic activity

A total of 75.5% of the population aged 65 and over was a retirement pensioner in the week prior to 1 January 2023 according to the Population Census. By sex, the percentage was higher in men (90.8%) than in women (64.0%). For men, the counties with the highest percentage were La Terra Alta (96.1%) and Les Garrigues (94.9%), while the counties with the lowest percentage were L'Alt Empordà (82.5%) and Aran (82.7%). As for women, El Ripollès (82.5%) and La Garrotxa (82.4%) had the highest percentages, while L'Alta Ribagorça (53.5%) and El Montsià (54.2%) had the lowest percentages. The municipalities with the highest percentage of retirement pensioners were Les Planes d'Hostoles (93.6%) and Montesquiu (93.5%), while the municipalities with the lowest percentage were Cadaqués (61.0%) and Bolvir (61.2%).

Likewise, 65.0% of the population aged 16 to 64 was employed in the week prior to 1 January 2023, which is 0.2 percentage points more than in the previous year. By sex, the percentage was higher in men (67.3%) than in women (62.6%). The counties with the highest percentage of employed persons were Aran and El Pla de l’Estany (72.5% each), while the counties with the lowest percentage were L’Alt Urgell (56.8%) and La Selva (58.0%). The municipalities with the highest percentage were Lladurs (85.3%), Sant Agustí de Lluçanès (84.6%) and Granyanella (83.7%), while the municipalities with the lowest percentages were Lloret de Mar (43.2%), Tossa de Mar (44.5%) and Salou (48.7%).

In the week prior to 1 January 2023 there were 60,905 employed persons aged 65 or over, 32,490 men and 28,415 women, whereas a year earlier there had been 55,614. This means 10.6% of people aged 65 to 69 were employed (12.3% of men and 9.2% of women), while in 2022 the percentage was 9.8%.

By nationality, the percentage of the population aged 16 and over of Spanish nationality who were employed was 52.2% (0.5% higher than the previous year) and that of foreign nationality was 45.5% (0.8% lower than the previous year).

A total of 8.9% of the active population was unemployed in the week prior to 1 January 2023, which is 1.0 percentage points less than in the previous year. By sex, the percentage was higher among women (10.7%) than among men (7.3%). The counties with the highest percentage were El Baix Penedès (13.7%), L’Anoia (11.0%) and El Baix Camp (10.8%), while the counties with the lowest percentage were Aran (3.2%), La Cerdanya and L’Alta Ribagorça (4.8% each). The municipalities with the highest percentage were Querol (22.2%) and El Montmell (18.7%) and the municipalities with the lowest percentage of unemployed active population were Bolvir (1.6%) and Castellolí (2.4%).

Idescat has also extended the results on population structure by nationality and place of birth, published in February 2025. In this extension of the results, a distinction is made as to whether nationality matches place of birth. Data are provided for the period from 2021 to 2024.