The unemployment rate in Catalonia stood at 8.2% in March. This is the result of a new labor market statistic from Idescat (Catalan Institute of Statistics), which also analyzes the Catalan active population and the employment rate. Until now, the unemployment rate was only known once a quarter, when the National Statistics Institute (INE) published the Active Population Survey (EPA).

Despite the positive economic figures and from low unemploymentPoverty has increased by 0.8 percentage points in Catalonia over the past year. This breaks the trend of a modest reduction that began in 2021 thanks to the injection of aid from the social safety net approved in response to the pandemic crisis. According to the latest Living Conditions Survey, published this Thursday by the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (Idescat), 24.8% of the Catalan population is poor and lives with material deprivation. This worsening social situation has not surprised organizations and NGOs, which have been noticing an increase in demand for their services for months. among people who have a jobThe poverty threshold is set at incomes below €13,800 for a single person and €29,100 for two adults and two children, and, in fact, precariousness is particularly affecting children under 16. Child poverty—children living in impoverished families—is a major failing in Catalonia, which ranks among the European regions with the highest number of minors experiencing basic deprivation. In the 0-16 age group, poverty has increased (another year) by 1.3 percentage points, half a point higher than the overall rate, bringing the number of children living in precarious situations to 36.1% of the total. This is the highest percentage of child poverty recorded in the last decade, while a decision is pending on whether to implement a universal childcare benefit so that Spain ceases to be one of the few European countries without a known effective measure.

One in ten people currently living in Catalonia (9.7%) have been there for less than four years, according to the 2024 population and housing census published this Thursday by the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (Idescat). These new residents include foreigners who have migrated—the vast majority—as well as citizens from other parts of Spain and Catalans who had moved away and have returned home. The survey—with data from January 1, 2024—shows that 780,639 people arrived in Catalonia between 2021 and 2023. The population growth in Catalonia has surged following the shock of the 2020 pandemic, according to the data. Today in our country there are more citizens who arrived in Catalonia in 2023 than Catalans who arrived between 2011 and 2015.

The reality is what it is. In the last ten years, Catalonia has grown by almost 700,000 inhabitants. As demographer Andreu Domingo explains in this week's dossier, the feeling among residents that there has been a meteoric change is true. It has happened. Catalonia now has eight million inhabitants, which demands a different type of management and investment than it was ten or twenty years ago. More resources are needed, or at least, efforts need to be reoriented according to new needs. However, this meteoric change is not only due to immigration, which is undoubtedly one of the key factors. It is a change that has many specific characteristics, many internal mobility factors, which affect some places more than others and, also, in one way in some places and in another way in others.

At an all-time low. The birth rate in Catalonia continues to decline, despite an increase in the resident population. Two factors are working against this backdrop: the later age at which motherhood begins and the fact that women are having fewer children. According to data released this Friday by the Statistics Institute of Catalonia (Idescat), the fertility rate has bottomed out at 1.08 children per woman, accentuating a trend that has been ongoing for years, reaching the lowest rate in the last 50 years. In fact, this indicator has already fallen below its last historical low (1995), and one has to go back to 1952, the post-war period, to find a lower number of births (53,236).

According to the report, 16.5% of Catalan families with children and jobs are in a situation of working poverty. Accounts that don't add up, presented this Wednesday by the NGO Save the Children. The analysis was carried out using data extracted from theSurvey of living conditions (ECV) of Idescat, and the Continuous display of working lives (MCVL) of Social Security, also including various interviews conducted with families that collaborate with the organization in Catalonia. It is 6.6%, a figure that increases to 10.1% when one child is living, continues to rise to 11.3% when two children are living, and up to 41% when talking about large families. In the context of single-parent families, 34.8% are at risk of working poverty, part-time work, and discontinuity in employment. One in six people who have worked at some point during the year have not earned enough to rise above the poverty line—less than 13,311 euros per year for a one-adult household and less than 27,954 euros per year for a two-adult household.Living Conditions Survey 2024 carried out by Idescat.