Rural population in Spain

Spain: Rural population was 9.62 million in 2025. ▼ Falling

Latest (2025)
9.62 million
Change on year
up 0.0%
World rank
56th
of 215 countries
All-time high
13.26 million
in 1960
All-time low
9.56 million
in 2017
Years of data
66
1960–2025

Rural population in Spain, 1960–2025

05.0M10.0M15.0M196019922025

Source: World Urbanization Prospects, United Nations (UN).

Analysis

Spain recorded 9.62 million for rural population in 2025.

That represents a change of down 0.2% over ten years.

Over the whole period, rural population in Spain peaked at 13.26 million in 1960 and was at its lowest, 9.56 million, in 2017.

Spain ranks 56th of 215 countries on this measure, in the middle of the range.

The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 66 years of available data.

Averages by decade

DecadeAverage LowestHighest Years
1960s 12.49 million 11.59 million 13.26 million 10
1970s 11.09 million 10.75 million 11.44 million 10
1980s 10.25 million 9.86 million 10.67 million 10
1990s 9.71 million 9.68 million 9.78 million 10
2000s 9.89 million 9.67 million 10.09 million 10
2010s 9.73 million 9.56 million 10.01 million 10
2020s 9.60 million 9.58 million 9.62 million 6

Countries ranked near Spain

  1. 53 Rwanda 10.07 million compare
  2. 54 Nepal 9.77 million compare
  3. 55 South Korea 9.73 million compare
  4. 57 South Sudan 9.55 million compare
  5. 58 North Korea 9.52 million compare
  6. 59 Japan 9.50 million compare

See the full ranking of 264 places →

More agriculture & rural data for Spain

All data for Spain →

Frequently asked questions

What is rural population in Spain?
Rural population in Spain was 9.62 million in 2025, according to World Urbanization Prospects, United Nations (UN).
What is the highest rural population recorded in Spain?
The highest recorded value was 13.26 million in 1960.
What is the lowest rural population recorded in Spain?
The lowest recorded value was 9.56 million in 2017.
How does Spain rank for rural population?
Spain ranks 56th out of 215 countries with data for 2025.
Is rural population rising or falling in Spain?
Over the last ten years it is down 0.2%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
Where does this Spain data come from?
The figures come from World Urbanization Prospects, United Nations (UN), published as part of Rural population. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.

Download this data

CSV · JSON — 66 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data).

About this data

Indicator
Rural population
Source
World Urbanization Prospects, United Nations (UN)
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage
264 places, 17,394 data points, 1960–2025
Last refreshed

Rural population refers to people living in rural areas as defined by national statistical offices. It is calculated as the difference between total population and urban population. Aggregation of urban and rural population may not add up to total population because of different country coverages.