Population Ageing in the Canary Islands

ArchipielagoNoticias report a delightful story on the average age of the population in the Canary Islands, which begins, "In the last ten years, the Canarian population has aged almost three years ..." I knew the laid-back culture was good for something: less stress, slower ageing. What a shame we can't take that literally ... :)

What they are actually saying, of course, is that, the average age of the Canary Islands population, as a whole, has risen by almost 3 years in the last decade, from 34.5 years in 1996, to 37.3 years in 2006. The averages vary from island to island and from district to district, with Vallehermoso in La Gomera having the oldest average age at 47.6 years and Puerto del Rosario, in Fuerteventura, and Santa Lucía de Tirajana, in Gran Canaria have the youngest averages at 32.7 years.

The report also states that, in the last five years, the percentage of old folk, practically hasn't varied. That is to say that 12.09% of the overall Canarian population is 65 and over, up from 11.95% in 2001, which, perhaps surprisingly, is actually 4 percentage points less than the national average of 16.62%. El Hierro has the largest percentage of old folk (19.17%), while Fuerteventura has the least (5.79%).

Tenerife has an average age that is only just over the average for the Canary Islands, at 38 years, but there are enormous differences between municipalities. Granadilla de Abona has the youngest population at an average of 34.5 years, while Santiago del Teide is at the other end of the scale with an average of 44.1 years. Santiago del Teide also has the largest percentage of foreigners on the island, 49.2%.

The percentage of over 65 year olds in Tenerife, is also only a point over the average for the archipelago, but again there are differences between towns. In Adeje there are only 6.89% of oldies, whereas in Los Silos, 22.9% of the population are old folk.

(Actually, that is interesting, since Los Silos has one of the youngest councils. The mayor was only in his early 20's when he was voted in and, I believe, holds the record for the youngest ever mayor in Spain. There was quite a funny story in one of the newspapers, actually, about the first time they turned up for a meeting in Santa Cruz and nobody believed that the "youths in jeans" were the elected councillors.)

Fuerteventura presenta la población más joven de Canarias y El Hierro la de más edad

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