Barcelona Population

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain in both size and population. It is also the capital of Catalonia. There are two official languages spoken in Barcelona: Catalan, generally spoken in all of Catalonia, and Castillian Spanish. The city is cosmopolitan in every sense. Barcelona is a multi faceted city in the sense that people of various communities, nationality and culture live here. Modern Barcelona experienced spectacular growth and economic revival at the onset of industrialization during the second half of the 19th century. The origin of Barcelona has its roots in two different legends. The first attributes the origin of the city to Hercules 400 years before Rome was built, and that it was rebuilt by the Carthaginian Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, who named the city Barcino after his family, in the 3rd century BC. According to the second legend the foundation of Barcelona is directly attributed to Hamilcar Barca.

According to the City Council of Barcelona its population as of 1 June 2006 was 1,673,075. The density of population was 15.779 people per square km. Eixample have the highest population among all the districts. While 62% of the people are Catalonian natives 23.5% comes from the rest of Spain. Of the 13.9% from other countries, a number that has more than tripled since 2001 when it was 3.9%, the majority come from Ecuador, Peru, Morocco, Colombia, Argentina, Italy, Pakistan and China. The name of the countries is in order of their representation.

95% of the population can understand Catalan, 74.6% can speak it while 75% can read it and another 47.1% can write it. The majority of the population are Catholic Christians but there are also a number of other communities that constitute a substantial percentage. The other group involves Evangelist (71 locations, mostly professed by Roma), Jehovah's Witnesses (21 Kingdom Halls) and Buddhists (13 locations). Barcelona's population soared in 1979 with 1.906.998 people and dropped all through the 80s and 90s. The all time lowest population was recorded in 2000. The population was as low as 1.496.266.

95% of the population understand Catalan, 74.6% can speak it, 75% can read it, and 47.1% can write it.[10] While the vast majority of the population profess to be of the Catholic religion (208 churches), there are also a number of other groups, including various Evangelist (71 locations, mostly professed by Roma), Jehovah's Witnesses (21 Kingdom Halls) and Buddhists (13 locations).[11]

Barcelona's population peaked in 1979 with 1.906.998 people, and descended through the 1980s and 1990s, where more people looked for a higher quality of life in the surburban cities of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area. After it bottomed out in 2000 with 1.496.266 people, it started to increase again when more younger people started to return, causing a great increase in housing prices.[12]