Demographics
According to INE data of 1 January 2011, Tenerife has the largest population of the seven Canary Islands and the most populated island of Spain with 908,555 registered inhabitants, of whom about 25% (220,902) live in the capital, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and nearly 50% (424,200) in the metropolitan area of Santa Cruz – La Laguna. Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna are physically one urban area, so that together they have a population of over 382,331 inhabitants.
After the city of Santa Cruz the major towns and municipalities are San Cristóbal de La Laguna (144,347), Arona (72,328), La Orotava (40,644), Adeje (38,245), Los Realejos (37,224), Granadilla de Abona (36,224), and Puerto de la Cruz (31,131). All other municipalities have fewer than 30,000 inhabitants, the smallest municipality being Vilaflor with a population of 1,900. In addition to the registered population, there are numerous non-registered residents, primarily tourists.
Recently Tenerife has experienced population growth significantly higher than the national average. In 1990, there were 663,306 registered inhabitants, which increased to 709,365 in 2000, an increase of 46,059 or an annual growth of 0.69%. However, between 2000 and 2007, the population rose by 155,705 to 865,070, an annual increase of 3.14%.
These results reflect the general trend in Spain, where since 2000, immigration has reversed the general slow down in population growth, following the collapse in the birth rate from 1976. However, since 2001 the overall growth rate in Spain has around 1.7% per year, compared with 3.14% on Tenerife, one of the largest increases in the country.
Read more about this topic: Tenerife