Demographics

According to Barcelona's City Council, Barcelona's population as of 2006-06-01 was 1,673,075 people,[21] while the population of the Metropolitan Area was 3,161,081. The population density was 15,779 people per km²,[22] with Eixample being the most populated district. 62% of the inhabitants were born in Catalonia, with a 23.5% coming from the rest of Spain. Of the 13.9% from other countries, a proportion which has more than tripled since 2001 when it was 3.9%,[14] the majority come from (in order) Ecuador, Peru, Morocco, Colombia, Argentina, Italy, Pakistan and China.[23]

95% of the population understand Catalan, 74.6% can speak it, 75% can read it, and 47.1% can write it.[24] 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).[25]

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 suburban 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.[26]