Official demographic data for 2025 confirm the profound structural crisis affecting the social fabric of the tourist municipalities in southern Gran Canaria. Far from consolidating a balanced community, the region is experiencing an alarming aging population, a record low birth rate, and a heavy reliance on foreign residents, all of which demonstrate the breakdown of the local sociodemographic model.
The aging index has skyrocketed to 169,26 points in the municipality, far exceeding the regional average of 149,47. This gap reflects an increasingly aging and unbalanced population facing a shrinking youth base. The child population rate stands at a meager 10,13%, and the youth rate barely reaches 15,23%, while the elderly dependency ratio climbs to 26,84%. Simultaneously, the labor force turnover indicator has plummeted to a deficient 61,38%, well below the regional average of 74,89%, foreshadowing serious generational replacement problems in the southern region's labor market.
The demographic crisis is exacerbated by birth and birth rates, where the municipality registers a meager 11,60 compared to the regional average of 12,56. The plummeting birth rate confirms that the southern region has become a hostile territory for raising families, driving out local residents due to the high cost of tourist accommodation and precarious employment. Adding to this is an abnormally high sex ratio of 90,73 men to women, which breaks the usual parity found in surrounding areas.
The demographic collapse is only mitigated by the massive influx of foreign residents, who now represent 28,41% of the total population, with 15.602 foreign inhabitants compared to 39.323 nationals. Within this group, European citizens make up 69,29% of the total (10.811 people), followed by the American population at 11,90%, Asia at 9,37%, and Africa at 9,36%. This high dependence on foreign immigration highlights the inability of southern Gran Canaria to retain its own native population, consolidating a dysfunctional social model where local residents are relegated to their own land.
