Madrid and Extremadura, heads and tails of wealth by municipalities

Madrid and Extremadura, heads and tails of wealth by municipalities

Pozuelo leads the towns with the highest income, with 73,000 euros per year, 6.5 times more than the town of Zahínos in Paraná, the poorest, and almost triple the Spanish average

  Twelve months have passed and almost nothing has changed in the national landscape of the distribution of income, something that in itself implies negative effects because inequalities remain. Zahínos, a small town in the province of Badajoz, remains the most humble in Spain, at least in economic terms. The average income of its inhabitants does not exceed 11,166 euros, six and a half times less than the income of the 85,600 inhabitants of the Madrilenian town of Pozuelo de Alarcón, which is the most wealthy in the country in that sense and also the most populated by the large number of urbanizations it houses. Both repeat the positions of the previous year.

  The data was published on Tuesday by the Tax Agency, correspond to the almost 20 million income tax returns (IRPF) for the year 2016 (the last closed because of 2017 are still making refunds) and seem to confirm in part the old theory of the two economic Spains, the rich north (Madrid is usually included in this group for financial reasons) and the poor south. Thus, nine of the ten richest municipalities in the country are in Madrid or Catalonia, while nine of the ten poorest are in Extremadura and Andalusia, with no major changes in this ranking compared to the previous year.

In fact, the average income according to this statistic has only increased by 1.4% in that time, from 25,582 to 25,950 euros per year, three times less than the average income of the richest municipality in the country and more than double that of the more poor. Curiously, almost five times the average income has increased at the two extremes of the list (specifically, 5.6%), both in Pozuelo (Madrid) and in Zahínos (Badajoz).

Few companies
Another note that predominates on both sides, both at the head of wealth and the tail is that they tend to be areas with little business and hardly industry. In the first case, it is mainly about localities close to large capital cities and near a less polluted natural environment, while in the second case rural areas are dedicated mainly to agriculture and livestock.

Starting with the latter, in a space of barely 50 kilometers near Badajoz, three of the poorest towns in Spain are concentrated, each with just over 2,000 inhabitants. Apart from the aforementioned Zahínos (which does get close to 2,800 neighbors), La Parra (11,954 euros) and Higuera de Vargas (11,913 euros) are included. Along with them appear, just in the second place and in the same province Fuenlabrada de los Montes (11,679 euros), while the least graceful quintet in economic terms of the country is completed by the town of Ahigal (11,905 euros) in Cáceres. Not far from there is Tornavacas (12,122 euros). The list, in ascending order, continues in Málaga with Almáchar (12,032 euros), Lugo with Cervantes (12,054 euros), Cádiz with Puerto Serrano (12,137 euros) and Granada with Montejícar (12,151 euros).

Going back to the classification, and beyond the aforementioned Pozuelo, the second place of privilege in the list of richest municipalities is occupied by Matadepera from Barcelona (54,113 euros), followed by Madrid's Boadilla del Monte (53,397 euros). The fourth place goes again near the Ciudad Condal, to Sant Just Desvern (52,263 euros), while the fifth moves away from both provinces and falls on Valencian lands with Rocafort (51,056 euros). Madrid appears again in the sixth, ninth and tenth positions with Majadahonda (50,992 euros), Alcobendas (50,550 euros) and Las Rozas (50,286 euros), while Barcelona is left with the seventh and eighth through Sant Cugat del Vallés (50,840 euros) and Sant Vicenç de Montalt (50,691 euros).