INE reports one million 'missing' in Spain population

 

The sloppy handling of information together with a number of town halls wanting to maximise funding from central-government has resulted the country's population being overestimated by over one million people, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported today.

Antonio Argüeso, Deputy Director General of Socio-demographic Statistics at the INE commented "There are 46 million of us in Spain, but the official figure currently stands at 47 million."

The over-calculation will be corrected in the next census by the INE, which will be based on annual surveys of homes to provide more accurate representation of the population of Spain. The INE says that in the medium term it intends to stop basing these figures purely on electoral rolls. This year it will carry out a survey of just 10% of the population, however, from now on, this will be carried out on just 1% of the population.

The INE says that town hall figures can vary by as much as 4%, but the main reason for the discrepancy is that many immigrants have left Spain over the last two to three years without informing their town hall, and therefore stay listed on the electoral roll.

Argüeso concede that town halls are also slow to register deaths - since 1996, the country has had a system of registering changes to the electoral roll, but that town halls have been lax in updating them. The explanation for this is more than lilkely the fact that local authorities receive funding from the central government based on the size of their populations.

Spain carries out a population census every 10 years, which usually amounts to a lower figure than that achieved by totalling the electoral rolls. "In the 2001 census, the population fell by 800,000," says Argüeso. Nevertheless, he says, the official figure remains that based on the electoral roll. But the figure used for international statistics, particularly the EU's Eurostat, is based on the INE's calculation.

The INE reports that it intends to carry out an annual survey which brings town halls' electoral rolls into line with its own figures. Argüeso says that this will not only result in greater accuracy in calculating population fluctuations, but also provide a more detailed picture of changing social trends, such as family structures and breadwinners.