The book ‘Evolución de la población española en el siglo xx por provincias y comunidades autónomas’ takes an exhaustive look at our country’s spectacular demographic growth over the course of the 20th century, and its social and economic implications in the first five years of the present century. Its purpose is to provide solid, reliable data on Spain’s demographic reality. To this end, it crosses the data of the Spanish Statistics Office (INE) with those of the Public Record Office and corrects the lags and inconsistencies found on comparing the sources available to date.

The result is a solid improvement on earlier compilations and a must-read for statisticians and the interested public.The work is spread over two volumes. The first is devoted to a theoreticalanalysis of the resident population, broken down by sex, age and nationality, and the employment status of the same (active, employed or out of work). It also looks at their geographical settlement, tracing diverse phenomena of natural or migration movements with a detailed study by province, and plots likely future developments on the basis of the data compiled for the 2000-2005 period. The second volume contains the statistical tables that sustain these analyses and projections.

The set is accompanied by a CD with the above data, and should prove an invaluable tool to both researchers and anyone wishing to learn more about fundamental aspects of Spain’s social and economic performance in a period exceeding one hundred years.