Long-run regional population disparities in Europe during modern economic growth: a case study of Spain

摘要

The objective of the present study is to analyze the disparities in long-run regional population growth in continental Europe. To this end, we propose a convergence equation for regional population distribution for eight Western European countries in the period 1850-2000. Our results show that divergence in economic growth at regional level has been a common pattern in Europe. We choose the case of Spain in order to depict the characteristics of this process of regional demographic divergence, studying the spatial dynamic of the Spanish population, focusing firstly on the processes of concentration-dispersion on a general scale. Finally, we establish a regional typology of long-term Spanish population growth, based on cluster analysis.