Impact of COVID-19 on the Territory and Demographic Processes: A View from Spanish Rural and Urban Areas

Abstract

The current physiognomy and problems of rural and urban territories in Spain are directly related to the demographic processes linked to the rural exodus of the 1960s. In the year 2020, a new problem and/or conditioning factor arose, COVID-19, which has modified dynamics, routines, and aspects of the daily life of the population. The objectives of this research are to check whether there are differences in the effect of COVID-19 between urban and rural municipalities and, in turn, to analyse the demographic dynamics of the population between 2020 and 2022, as well as territorial distribution patterns. To this end, population data were extracted from the Population Register and Residential Variation data for the period 2010 and 2022 and demographic and statistical calculations (Student’s t-test and Pearson’s correlation) were carried out. Among the main results, it is observed that COVID-19 has less of an effect in Spanish rural areas. Moreover, these areas show a positive demographic trend for the period 2020–2022. Population growth has had a direct influence on the improvement of demographic data, although with differences according to autonomous communities. This fact represents a break in the trend in rural areas, but is beginning to show signs of exhaustion and a return to the pre-pandemic trend.