Over 65*s thrive in Balearics

Staff Reporter IT would seem that the Balearics is a healthy place to live as 133'383 of its residents, 14 percent of the population, are over 65 years of age. This figure is equivalent to 1.8 percent of the total of 7.276'620 senior citizens in the whole of Spain. According to the National Institute of Statistics' annual report for 2003, the total number of “over 65s” in Spain is equivalent to 17 percent of the total population. Castilla y León is the region of the country where most people in their later years are found in the highest concentration (22.9 percent) in relation to the rest of the population. Asturias follows closely with 22.1 percent, and then Aragón and Galicia, both with 21.3 percent. The Canary Islands on the other hand comes at the other end of the scale with only 12 percent of its population being over 65 years of age. With regard to the total of the population of Spain and in absolute terms, the regions of Catalonia (with 15.8 percent), Andalucia (with 15.5 percent) and Madrid (with 11.4 percent) are those with the greatest number of senior citiizens. In stark contrast, La Rioja, the number of residents over 65 make up no more than 0.7 percent to the population.