Calp population increases reaching 24.096 inhabitants

The National Institute of Statistics has notified Calp town hall that the population figure on January, 1 this year is of 24,096 inhabitants. A period of allegations is now open and if none are presented, the National Statistics Institute’s (INE) proposal will be officially approved. This means that the municipality has gained more than 500 new inhabitants since the last official figure. However, reaching this figure and avoiding a drop in the municipal census entails an intense task for the town hall.

In the last few years, the population register department, which is headed by Hilde Backaert, has taken a number of measures to prevent population loss. One of the problems detected was the lack of information for citizens, who in many cases are convinced that they are already registered or are unaware of the need to renew the census if they are foreigners.

Successive campaigns, addressed to all citizens, foreigners or not, living in Calp, call for registration or renewal. For months, advertisements were made in the media, informative oppis (Optical Point of Promotion and Information) were used, explanatory brochures were sent out, home visits were made, etc. The municipal register department carried out intensive work to raise awareness of the need to renew registration on the municipal register. In addition, letters were sent out in five languages to foreigners who had not renewed their registration.

All these efforts resulted in the recovery of inhabitants after lowering below 20,000 inhabitants in 2016 (with the consequent loss of government aid), thus Calp continues to recover inhabitants and economic subsidies.