- The salt city hit rock bottom in 2018 after undergoing a purge of its statistics but, since then, it has recovered strongly thanks to the foreign push, which now represents half of the population.
Torrevieja has once again passed the barrier of 100,000 registered inhabitants, 12 years after first achieving the record as a result of the construction boom, according to the data shown on the municipal register as of February 1, 2024.
This lifts the salt city into third place as the city with the largest population in the province of Alicante and consolidates it, as the fifth in the Community Valencian, only behind the three provincial capitals (Valencia, Alicante and Castellón) and the city of Elche.
And it is the foreign push that has seen it overcome that significant figure now showing that of those 100,000, 50.26% (50,477) are Spanish and 49.74% (49,944) are of international origin from 122 countries across five continents.
It is worth highlighting the significant growth in people who first registered in 2023, a total of 8,690 from January 2023, when there were 91,731 registered inhabitants. The number of men registered in Torrevieja numbers 48,887 (48.68%), while there are 51,534 (51.32%) women.
The data, however, should be taken with some caution. According to the National Institute of Statistics, which last November highlighted Torrevieja and Benidorm as the two cities that gained the most inhabitants in Spain in 2022, there were 87,975 residents in Torrevieja showing in its records, well below the figure of 100,000.
Exceeding the six-figure limit is not a trivial matter for any municipality. The funding that such municipalities receive from the State will amount to far more more when the city in question exceeds this figure. In addition, it also means that the City Council could elect two new councillors. Instead of the current 25 councillors, the figure would increase to 27 councillors, something that happened during the first term of the current mayor, Eduardo Dolón (2011-2015)
With the bursting of the brick bubble, Torrevieja saw its numbers fall away, and in 2014 the City Council commissioned a purification of its census, as it was suspected that a large number of the registered population, especially those of foreign origin, had not been deregistered, either due to death or change of residence.
That process translated into a reduction of more than 9,000, which, by 2016, with the task finally completed, had reached 10,000 residents.
Torrevieja subsequently hit rock bottom in 2018 with just 82,599 inhabitants but from there, the dynamic turned strongly upwards. Although the crisis and then Brexit saw another decline, new foreign communities have made up for the decline among the British grouping. From the data provided by the Department of Census and Statistics, citisens from Ukraine (7,650), Russia (5,837) and Great Britain (4,912) now occupy the podium of international residents.
The City Council said that the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine has transformed Torrevieja into a refuge enclave, which has turned Ukrainians into the largest international community in the salt city. Since January 2023, a total of 1,879 Ukrainians and 905 Russians have been registered.
Thereafter, following the United Kingdom comes Colombia with 4,360 registered residents, which for the fourth consecutive year surpasses the number of Moroccan residents (2,473), followed by Swedes (1,677), Romanians (1,604 ), Bulgarians (1,524), Belgians (1,474), Italians (1,246), Germans (1,159), Algerians (982), Poles (909), Chinese (830), Brazilians (803), Argentines (777), Norwegians (667 ), Venezuelans (664), Finns (622), French (621), Belarusians (582), Lithuanians (559), Indians (533), Netherlands (529), Cubans (447) and Irish (384).
The statistics also show that international residents have arrived from 122 countries, which include Senegal, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Chile, Uruguay, Portugal, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovenia, Macedonia, Denmark, Austria, Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia , Czech Republic, Paraguay, Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Honduras, Mexico, United States of America, Cape Verde, Guinea, Nigeria, Gabon, Gambia, South Africa, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Egypt , Nepal, Madagascar, Mauritius, Philippines, Israel, Bangladesh, Burkina Fasso, Thailand, Australia, Japan, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Vietnam, Sri-Lanka, Malaysia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Suriname.
Finally, the census in Torrevieja also tells us that the number of children and young people under 20 years of age amounts to 18,536, while the number of Torrevieja residents between 20 and 40 years of age number 22,435; thereafter, from 40 to 60 years old there are 30,513 registered; from 60 to 80 years old, a total of 23,485; and from 80 to 100 years old, the number of those registered is 5,431; while residents in Torrevieja aged 100 number 21, of which 6 are men and 15 women.
