Demography

The Region of Murcia has a population of 1,424,063 inhabitants (INE 2008, National Statistic Institute of Spain), of which almost a third (30.7%) live in the municipality of Murcia. It makes up 3.0% of the Spanish population. In addition, after Ceuta and Melilla, Murcia has the highest vegetative growth (5.52 by thousand inhabitants) and also the highest birth rate of the country.

* Birth rate (2004): 13.00 per 1,000
* Mortality rate (2004): 7.48 per 1,000
* Life expectancy (2002):
o Men: 76.01 years
o Women: 82.00 years

In the 1991-2005 period the Murcian population grew at by 26.06%, as opposed to the national average of 11.85%. 12.35% of the inhabitants are of foreign origin, according to the INE 2005 census, which is 4% more than the Spanish average. The most notable groups of immigrants are Ecuadorians (33.71% of the total of foreigners), Moroccans (27.13%), Britons (5.95%), Bolivians (4.57%) and Colombians (3.95%).