Rural Spain

Spain's population is steadily increasing, and yet more villages and small towns are becoming empty. The Spanish call these newly depopulated areas "La España vaciada". As inhabitants of these areas move to the city, so do opportunities of all sorts for everyone. Schools are closing because there are not enough children to keep them open. A significant number of university students who moved to bigger cities to attend university do not return to their hometowns. The lack of opportunities forces the young into the cities, which in turn intensifies the former and a positive loop drives the depopulation of these areas.

Many of these towns were built next to or around local industries which for many years provided salaries, benefits, local investment and community to growing families in search of work. Along with the increase in productivity of traditional agriculture brought by more modern techniques and machinery, these industries ensured steady jobs for large segments of the population.

However, for many years now the population has decreased in these towns. Once lively villages with great opportunities and young families, their streets today are empty, like their churches. The elderly meet in a café or a bar to play cards and discuss the latest news, while houses are put up for sale and ruins are left abandoned. Some still have a supermarket or a grocery store, but many of their inhabitants rely on huge commercial complexes within driving distance.

Sixteen years after the 2008 crash and sixty years after its economic miracle, the country's economy is doing better, despite its massive debt (a ticking time bomb it shares with other countries in the European Union). However, there is a strong imbalance of opportunity between cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, San Sebastián or Málaga and thousands of villages which keeps draining these villages of their most valuable resource: their people.