On Tuesday the Spanish statistical office published the 2013 post-censal estimates of the Spanish population, and the results are shocking. In 2012, Spain experienced a population decline. This is the first time since the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s that Spain experiences a population decline.
In 2012, the population of Spain decreased by 0.24%, which means a loss of 113,902 people. This is in sharp contrast to the boom years, as you can see in the graph below.
The graph shows the annual population growth of Spain, Metropolitan France (the European part of France), and the USA from 1991 to 2013. Germany and the UK have not released their intercensal and post-censal estimates yet, so it's not possible to add them on the graph.
Nearly all the Spanish regions experienced population decline in 2013, except the coast of Andalusia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, and the Spanish enclaves in North Africa.
The boom years in Madrid and Barcelona are over. The province of Madrid lost 16,357 inhabitants in 2013 (-0.25%) and the province of Barcelona lost 39,888 inhabitants (-0.72%).