Catalonia unveils record budget amid population concentration concerns

The Catalan government has approved a historic budget of €49.162 billion, about €9 billion higher than the previous year, marking the highest spending ever for the Generalitat. The plan, negotiated between the ruling administration, Esquerra Republicana and the Comuns, emphasizes housing (including a 50,000‑home target and emancipation loans), health, education, mobility, social services, renewable energy, digitalisation and infrastructure.

A recent statistical report by Idescat shows that Catalonia’s population is highly unevenly distributed: 61.4% live in urban centres that cover only 1.38% of the territory, and 50.6% reside in areas representing just 0.57% of the land. More than 70% of the region’s surface is uninhabited, with four 1‑km² cells in the Barcelona metropolitan area exceeding 50,000 inhabitants per square kilometre. The data underscore a stark urban‑rural divide that the new budget aims to address through increased housing provision and rural development programmes.