No 1021 Monday 29th April - Sunday 5th May 2024
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The Costa Blanca’s oldest ‘FREE’ English language newspaper - WITH THE LARGEST LOCAL CIRCULATION
POPULATION OF THE COAST NOW EXCEEDS THAT OF ORIHUELA CITY
SEE PAGE 24
ccording to the 2023 census, the municipality of Orihuela has 82,449 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Vega Baja del Segura and the largest municipality in the province of Alicante.
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However, although its city centre has 32,902 inhabitants, and the Coast has 28,503, according to the most recent figures published in March 2024, this latest figure is far from reality. That the coast is much more populated than the municipal register shows suggests something that we all sensed, but following the data published by the water company Hidraqua, it is now confirmed. There is a direct relationship between water consumption and the number of inhabitants in an area, which allows us to estimate the real population far more accurately. The closing data for 2023 showed the month of August 2023, as the most populated with 150,000 inhabitants in Orihuela Costa, while the month of December was the least populated with just 25,000 inhabitants. It is now estimated that the real average of the inhabitants of the coast should be set at around 45,000 people of an average and fixed population, so the coast now quite clearly exceeds the city.
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