Catalan cities, forty years later

On June 25, the latest issue of the Revista Econòmica de Catalunya (Catalan Economic Review), commemorating its 40th anniversary, was presented at the Parliament of Catalonia. The contributions review the last 40 years of the different aspects that make up Catalan economy and society. With these contributions, along with Miquel Àngel Garcia López (UAB & IEB), we review the evolution that Catalan cities have experienced.

Catalonia has undergone a profound urban transformation in these four decades. Between 1981 and 2025, two simultaneous and seemingly contradictory trends are detected. On the one hand, the geographical concentration of the population has decreased, but, at the same time, within each city, the population has tended to move to the periphery while employment has continued to be concentrated in the center.

The first of these trends is clear. In 1981, almost 30% of Catalans lived in the municipality of Barcelona; by 2025, this figure has fallen to 21%. The city has not lost inhabitants, but has gained them, but the population of the rest of the territory has grown more rapidly. L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Badalona, and Sabadell have also lost relative weight. The only one of the five large cities that has gained positions is Terrassa. Thus, the population has been redistributed towards medium-sized cities and smaller municipalities, and the Catalan urban system is now more balanced.

The second detected trend emerges when we look at what happens within each city – the so-called suburbanization. In 1981, almost 40% of Catalans lived in the central cities of their local labor systems – those that take into account mobility for work reasons between the central city and nearby municipalities. By 2025, this proportion has fallen to 32%. In absolute terms, the surrounding municipalities have grown by 55%, while the central cities have only grown by 10%.

However, this residential displacement has not been mirrored in economic activity. Around 45% of Catalan employment remains concentrated in urban centers, a figure that has barely changed since 1999. The consequence is a notable spatial mismatch, meaning that only 32% of the population lives where 45% of jobs are located. This is where the daily mobility flows that saturate roads and railway networks originate.

The causes of this asymmetry are known. Large cities continue to be attractive places for businesses, especially those in advanced services, which value proximity to other companies, clients, and qualified talent, and which benefit from face-to-face exchange. Housing costs, on the other hand, act in the opposite direction. Thus, pressure on prices in the center conditions the decisions of many residents, who end up opting for more affordable surrounding municipalities, thus widening the distance between where economic activity is generated and where daily life takes place.

The general pattern shows important nuances depending on each city. An intuitive way to see this is to look at the density difference between the center and the surrounding municipalities. Barcelona has experienced clear population suburbanization, but has retained employment in the center. The population density difference between the center and the periphery has decreased by 14%, but that of employment has barely moved. Girona maintains a surprisingly compact structure, with minimal changes and even a slight recentralization of employment. Lleida has experienced moderate suburbanization of both inhabitants and employment. And Tarragona constitutes the most extreme case where the population density difference between the center and the periphery has decreased by more than 60%, and its urban structure has clearly transformed, with residential and productive dispersion.

This simple descriptive analysis allows us to identify three priority challenges for the design of urban policies in the coming years. The first is mobility, which is the result of the mismatch between residence and work and generates flows that saturate infrastructure, increase emissions, and reduce quality of life. More powerful public transport, improvement of the cycle lane network, and containment of private vehicles become essential instruments, no longer as an ideological option, but as a practical necessity.

The second is territorial sustainability, because extensive suburbanization consumes land, fragments landscapes, and can put natural areas at risk. It is necessary to plan sufficiently high densities so that public transport is viable and agglomeration economies can continue to operate. The third is territorial equity, as not all suburbs have the same facilities, public services, or opportunities.

In forty years, Catalonia has gone from a concentrated country to a more distributed one, but with a growing mismatch between where we live and where we work. The coming years will pose new challenges – an aging population, ecological transition, digitalization, and the impact of artificial intelligence on ways of working – that will require policies capable of reconciling urban density, environmental sustainability, and social cohesion. Understanding how our cities are evolving is the first step to designing them better.