How Catalonia has changed in these last 10 years

This morning I was reading the La Vanguardia newspapers at my favorite cafè and found a very interesting article presenting figures showing how Catalonia has changed during the last decade. Since it covered many areas I'm often asked about by my guests, I thought this could make a good post. So here are a few facts I want to share:

In 2009 there were only 66,334 foreigners registered in our region, nowadays it's 1,103,790. A milion more in 10 years! This fast change is still being digested by the local society and government: people wants them integrated, but people is scared of sharing resources, losing opportunities in front of the newcomers, and above all... scared of differences.

The catholic church is losing more and more its influence over Catalan. Ten years ago only 26.6% of marriages were civilian and a large majority married in the church. Now... it's 65.3%. Plus divorces and separations have also gone from 14,423 upto 21,913 a year!

Economy has also changed quite a bit. It seems we are richer now, with a 29,757 GDP/person (although the newspaper mentioned that might lower next year to the global crisis...). The services area keeps growing (mainly thanks to tourism) from 51.3% to 61.2%of the GDP. Instead, industry is not as big as it used to be and has gone from 31.1% to 19.6%. However, export has gone from 8,729 milion euros in 1999 to our current... 50.314 milion!