Statistics on Degree of Urbanisation. 2023-2024
In 2024, 72.2% of the municipalities in Catalonia were classified as rural areas (or thinly populated areas), accounting for 8.6% of the total population. Meanwhile, 22.7% were classified as towns and semi-dense areas (or intermediate density areas), concentrating 29.8% of the population; and 5.1% were classified as urban centres (or densely populated areas), comprising 61.6% of the total population.
As for the number of municipalities classified as urban centres, the total in 2024 increased by 48, 2 compared to 2018. The number of municipalities classified as towns and semi-dense areas also increased (from 210 in 2018 to 215 in 2024), while those classified as rural areas decreased (from 691 in 2018 to 684 in 2024).
As for population density, the census tract groups with the highest densities were located in the urban centres of Barcelona, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and Santa Coloma de Gramenet. Specifically, 4 out of the 10 census tract groups with over 79,000 inhabitants per km² were located in Barcelona, 5 in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and 1 in Santa Coloma de Gramenet.
On the other hand, regarding the spatial distribution of the population, there was a high concentration of population in urban areas located near the coast (from the municipality of Palafrugell to Vandellòs i L'Hospitalet de l'Infant), consisting entirely of urban centres or semi-dense areas.
At the same time, a concentration of urban centres was observed in the northern Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, including municipalities such as Terrassa, Sabadell, Mollet del Vallès, and Granollers.
Similarly, inland and southern plains of Catalonia also featured a large number of towns and semi-dense areas, such as the Bages plain, the Osona plain, the Delta and El Baix Ebre, and the Lleida plain.
Idescat publishes data for the territory of Catalonia divided into a grid of 1 km² cells (European standard grid), which describes the urban–rural continuum of the territory according to the degree of urbanisation, based on criteria such as population size, density and contiguity.
Results on the degree of urbanisation are published for municipalities, census tract groups, and census tracts and, for the first time, for provinces. These results are available through interactive maps.
The publication Maps and Data on Degree of Urbanisation (DEGURBA) is also available. It provides the 1 km² grid in Shapefile format, with the classification of each cell by degree of urbanisation (urban centres, urban clusters and rural grid cells). The classification of municipalities, census tract groups, census tracts and provinces by degree of urbanisation (cities, towns and semi-dense areas, and rural areas) is available in both CSV and Shapefile formats.