Almost 1 million Spanish residents aged 85 or Over

Almost 1 million people in Spain are now aged over 85, according to a recent study published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) which makes the country’s life expectancy one of the highest in the western world.

Approx two-thirds of the 989,047 over the age of 85 are women and one-third being men, representing a total of 2.1% of the Population of Spain.

The ‘league table’ of elderly residents over the age of 85 was headed by Cataluña, with 161,633 residents. Secondly comes Andalucia with a total of 129,237 residents falling in that age bracket. Madrid takes third place with 119,171 and Valencia fourth place with 93,000 senior citizens.

It may come as no surprise that these four Regions boast the highest numbers of residents over the age of 85 as they are perhaps the most densely populated Regions of Spain anyway. This is perhaps emphasized by the Region of La Rioja, who falls at the bottom of the list with just 8,435 residents aged 85 or over, but has the lowest population of all Regions on the mainland.