Malaga villages could disappear

There are several villages of Malaga province “in danger of extinction”. The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces established “a red line” in 15 towns with less than 500 inhabitants.

Half of Spain’s municipalities are at risk of depopulation. The reason: the continuous ageing of their demographic, the lack of generational replacement and the minimal birth rate.

In Malaga, depopulation is a real and present problem hence, projects such as ‘Metapueblos‘, which promotes employment and fights against this rural exodus, even providing aid for living in a village in the province.

According to the population data for small municipalities from the National Statistics Institute (INE), only four in the province have more than 1,000 inhabitants. The rest of the rural areas, 15, are between 400 and 200 inhabitants, where the “red line of the danger of extinction” is located, as established by the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces.

The villages destined to disappear from the province are Atajate and Salares, as they are the two villages with less than 200 inhabitants, a figure well below the “red line”. Salares, the municipality with the fewest inhabitants in Málaga province, has just 175 residents, four fewer than two decades ago.

These are not the only villages destined to disappear; a total of 13 villages, with less than 500 inhabitants, are also on the list including Juzcar, the famous blue “Smurf” town and Pujerra where the much loved chestnut festival will take place this week.