According to official data from the City Council, Barcelona has 1,729,963 registered inhabitants at the beginning of 2026, which represents a decrease of 0.1% compared to 2025. Seven of the ten districts show slight population losses, while Ciutat Vella, Nou Barris, and Sant Andreu show modest increases.
The deputy mayor, Jordi Valls, attributes the decline to corrections in the registry, highlighting that some departures correspond to people who were registered as residents but no longer actually lived in the city.
Birth rate at historic lows
Births in 2025 reached 11,012, the lowest figure since 1900, with the only exception of 1939. The number of deaths was 14,557, resulting in a negative balance of 3,549 people. Only Ciutat Vella, with 54.8% foreign population, registered more births than deaths for the third consecutive year.
Less than a quarter of the city's households have minors. The most frequent names were Olívia, Sofia, Emma, Júlia, and Ona for girls, and Mateo, Pau, Marc, Pol, and Bruno for boys.
The average age of the city rises slightly to 44.6 years. The number of centenarian residents reaches 1,196 people, of whom 82% are women. The female population continues to be the majority from the age of 45 onwards, especially in older age groups.
Youth exodus and housing crisis
The number of young people leaving Barcelona after emancipation and forming a family continues to grow. The majority are Spaniards who move to other towns in Catalonia (68.4%) or the rest of Spain (23.7%). Currently, there are 684,077 households in the city, almost a third of them single-person households, with more than 218,000 people living alone.
International migration as a demographic driver
Immigration is consolidated as the main factor of population growth. Among the newly registered residents,81.6% are young adults born abroad and 44% have university degrees. The population originating from Barcelona now represents 44.6%, while foreign-born residents total 626,924 people (36.2%).
More than half come from America, with Argentina being the country with the largest number of foreign residents, followed by Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Pakistan, Ecuador, Morocco, Italy, Honduras, and China. 30% of those born abroad have obtained Spanish nationality, representing 11% of the registry.
Currently, there are 460,409 Barcelonians with foreign passports (26.6% of the total), with a growth of 0.7%. The city registers 182 nationalities, led by Italian, Colombian, and Pakistani, not counting the temporary floating population of students, workers, and visitors.
Profile of the new Barcelona
Barcelona is characterized by a more international, aging, educated, and solitary population, with sustained growth driven mainly by young and qualified immigration. The census data show a panorama of continuous demographic transformation, consolidating the Catalan capital as an urban center of high diversity and structural changes in its population.