A report by the Economics and Social Council and the University of the Balearic Islands has considered demographic development up to 2030 and forecasts that the islands will have a population of 1,384,000 by that year. This will represent an increase of 18.6% compared with 2017 and will include a doubling in the number of dependent people from 20,000 to 40,000.
The population increase will be the highest in Spain, while the number of people aged seventy or older will go up to 58,000, a rise of 46% and double that elsewhere in the country.
The predictions also consider the foreign population. This is set to rise from 16.8% to 20.2% of the total population but with a particularly high increase among children aged fifteen and under - up from 15.8% to 30.5% of this age range. In terms of household size, a 50% increase is forecast for five or more people, while the prediction for two people will remain much the same as at present - around 31% of all households.
For employment, the report suggests that the public sector will have 28% more employees; this includes education and health as well as public administrations. In the hostelry and transport sectors a 23.4% increase is forecast, while industry and energy jobs are expected to grow by the same percentage rate as the public sector. This will translate as 122,000 more jobs than at present, and unemployment by 2030 is expected to be only 5.4%, around half of the current rate.
