Spain has undergone significant economic changes in recent decades, resulting in uneven impacts on its various geographical regions. While some previously prosperous rural areas and small to medium-sized metropolitan areas now face job losses and slow income growth, large metropolitan areas have experienced more dynamic behavior.
In addition to economic factors, demographic changes have also played a significant role in shaping disparities in inequality and well-being indicators across different regions. The VI Report on Inequality in Spain from the Alternativas Foundation provides figures that reveal these differences, with indicators of greater well-being found primarily in municipalities located in the provinces of Madrid and Barcelona, as well as other locations such as those in the Basque Country, Galicia, and isolated cases like Zaragoza or Logroño.
However, most of the areas with values below the average are located along the south of the peninsula and the Canary Islands. These indicators do not always correspond to a more egalitarian distribution of income. In fact, inequality is much higher in large cities than it is in rural areas.
The municipal map of inequality in Spain reveals that Madrid and its surrounding areas stand out due to their high values, while most of the Cantabrian coast experiences lower values. This raises questions about why these disparities have increased.
The new economic geography provides several theoretical perspectives for understanding how economic processes affect territorial differences. One crucial factor is how companies and workers’ location influences access to large markets. By examining these relationships more closely, we can gain a better understanding of how economic changes impact our communities differently across different regions of Spain.