Murcia, Balearic Islands, Madrid, La Rioja, Navarra and the Canary Islands are the communities where the economy has grown the most since the approval of the Constitution in 1978, while the rest of the northern peninsula, especially Asturias and to a lesser extent the Basque Country, is the one that has registered the least growth.
The long series of economic and demographic aggregates of the Spanish regions during the last decades, updated this week by Fedea with data from 2022, place these territories in the first and last positions in terms of GDP, employment and wage increases during the democratic period.
Forty-four years - between 1978 and 2022 - of the State of Autonomies in which the Madrid economy has surpassed the Catalan economy and has distanced itself further from the Andalusian, Valencian and Basque economies.
Gross domestic product
The list of the communities where GDP has grown the most between 1978 and 2022 is headed by Murcia, with 230.2%, followed by Madrid (224.4%), La Rioja (215%), Balearic Islands (203.3%), Navarra (192%), Canary Islands (187%) and the Valencian Community (179%).
On the other hand, the one that has grown the least in those 44 years has been Asturias, 69.3%, 3.3 times less than Murcia, behind other communities in the northern peninsula such as Cantabria (110.5%), Castilla y León (122.6%), Basque Country (123.3%), Galicia (142.2%) and Aragón (155.8%).
In positions closer to the average, although below, are Extremadura (171.1%), Catalonia (169%) and Castilla-La Mancha (161.3%).
In 1978, Catalonia was in the lead with 19.2% of Spain's total GDP, ahead of Madrid (16.7%), Andalusia (12.9%), the Valencian Community (9.2%) and the Basque Country (7.3%), but in 2022 Madrid occupied the first place, with 19%, surpassing Catalonia (19%) and moving away from Andalusia (13.2%), the Valencian Community (9.4%) and the Basque Country (6%).
Salaried jobs
Parallel to the growth of the economy, the number of salaried jobs has increased in Spain since 1978 by 77.3%, but also in this area with large differences between territories.
At the head of this increase are the two archipelagos, Balearic Islands with 130.7% more jobs and Canary Islands with 122.4%, followed by Madrid (116.5% more) and Murcia (112.5%).
Next are Navarra (86.5% more) and La Rioja (78%), also above the average, and already below the Valencian Community (75.2%), Catalonia (75.1%), Andalusia (73%) and Aragón (70.8%).
Again, Asturias was the community in which salaried employment has grown the least in those 44 years, 23.4%, almost 5.6 times less than in the Balearic Islands, below the Basque Country (42.5%), Extremadura (46.9%), Castilla y León (48.5%) and Galicia (54.8%).
As in relation to GDP, in 1978 Catalonia was at the head of employment, with 1,876,000 employees, 18.4% of the total, followed by Madrid (1,553,000, 15.2%), Andalusia (1,542,000, 15.1%) and the Valencian Community (1,023,000, 10%).
And in the same way, in 2022 Madrid had advanced to the first place, with 3,362,000 employees, 18.6% of the total, slightly above Catalonia (3,286,000, 18.2%) and further away from Andalusia (2,668,000, 14.8%) and the Valencian Community (1,791,000, 9.9%).
Remuneration of employees
Looking at the remuneration of all employees (in gross annual figures that also include social security contributions paid by the employer), it has multiplied by 17 throughout Spain, a figure that is already important in itself and has reached 22 in Murcia and has remained at 10 in Asturias.
In addition to Murcia, the largest increases in employee remuneration in that period have occurred in the Balearic Islands, which has multiplied the number of employees by 21, Madrid (by 20) and the Canary Islands (by 19).
The total salaries of employees since 1978 have been multiplied by 18 in the Valencian Community, Navarra and Andalusia, by 17 - the same as the average - in Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and La Rioja, by 16 in Catalonia and Aragón, by 15 in Galicia and Cantabria, by 14 in Castilla y León and by 13 in the Basque Country.
Once again, also in this section Catalonia has ceded the first place in these years to Madrid.
The year in which Spaniards approved the Constitution, the total salaries in Catalonia amounted to the equivalent in pesetas to 7,667 million euros, 20.3% of the entire State, while in Madrid they were 6,925 million (18.4%); in Andalusia 4,805 (12.8%); in the Valencian Community 3,204 million (8.5%); and in the Basque Country 2,804 million (7.4%).
However, in 2022 the total salaries reached 136,524 million euros in Madrid, 21.3% of the total in Spain, slightly above the 125,402 million in Catalonia (19.5%) and further away than before from Andalusia, with 84,719 million (13.2%); the Valencian Community, with 59,076 (9.2%) and, above all, the Basque Country, with 37,777 (5.9%).