479,979 inhabitants in the Pyrénées-Orientales in 2019, the department is still appealing

Our department attracts new arrivals but at a slower pace than around the years 2000-2010. This is what emerges from the last legal census published by INSEE on Wednesday, December 29, 2021. In 2019, we were 479,979 inhabitants. Between 2013 and 2019, the POs hosted 17,274 more inhabitants.

Perpignan, Canet, Saint-Estève or Collioure in demographic decline

During the period of the last census of the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, the population of the Pyrénées-Orientales grew at a rate of 0.6% per year. This is a little less than during the previous count (2008-2013) where growth was 0.9%. And this is partly explained by the birth rate. In cities like Canet, Saint-Estève or Perpignan, we had fewer children between 2013 and 2019, the natural balance is in deficit and has slowed down population growth. At the same time, the migratory balance between departures and new arrivals has decreased. Collioure has lost more than 21% of its population

Perpignan has lost just over 1,600 inhabitants in 6 years

We are still the 4th most populous department in the region behind Haute-Garonne (1,400,039 inhabitants), Hérault (1,175,623) and Gard (748,437) but unlike our neighbors in Occitanie, at us, the city center is less attractive. Where Montpellier or Toulouse gain more than 1.5% of city dwellers each year, Perpignan loses 0.2%, or a little more than 1600 inhabitants in 6 years. This is not a collapse but a fundamental trend: here, we choose to settle in the second ring of the urban community as in Saint-Laurent de la Salanque, the city that grew the most over the period measured: almost 2% per year.

Another notable point: nearly half of the population is concentrated around Perpignan and along the national 116 to Prades. Communes like Nefiach or Marquixanes gained up to 5% of inhabitants. And Prades sees its population start to rise again, just like Banyuls-sur-mer , the city of Maillol after having known years of decline seduces again.

The INSEE census stops before the Covid pandemic, so we will have to wait for the next study, the start of which was delayed by the pandemic to find out how many Parisians or inhabitants of large cities have arrived here since the crisis. .