Living alone has become Barcelona’s second most common household type. Nearly 229,608 homes now have just one resident, according to the city council’s latest sociodemographic survey. That’s 28.8% of all housing in the city.
The figure has jumped 4.8% since 2020. Meanwhile, couples without children remain the most frequent arrangement at 37.5%. However, the gap between solo living and traditional families (three or more members) continues to widen. Traditional households now make up less than 20% citywide.
Moreover, single-person homes have increased across nearly all districts over the past five years. Nou Barris and Sant Martí saw slight decreases, but both still maintain rates above 20%. Ciutat Vella leads with 38.5% of homes occupied by one person alone. Les Corts follows at 33.2%.
These are the only two districts where living solo has become the majority choice, the survey shows.
Demand for tiny flats has surged over five years, property consultant Iñaki Unsain confirms. The supply is quite short, he says. When they come on the market, they sell very quickly.
Specifically, these are homes of 40 to 50 square metres with one bedroom. Investors snap them up to rent out for profit. Under-65s living alone outnumber those over 65 (18.4% versus 10.4% of all households).
There’s huge demand for small flats, Unsain explains. Master’s students or digital nomads rent them for two or three years. The typical tenant is a foreigner who’s come to Barcelona to work or remote work, aged 25 to 30.
Pau Alarcón from Institut Metròpoli points out that transnational migration has driven the city’s demographics since 2000. These new residents now represent the majority in certain age brackets. Indeed, foreign-born people outnumber locals in the 25-29, 30-34, and 35-39 age groups.
Mela Castagna (34, Argentine) and Francesco Vaglia (29, Italian) fit this growing profile perfectly. Both managed to find solo flats after sharing with others. Castagna lives alone in a 32-square-metre studio in the Born, paying €787 monthly. Vaglia previously paid €650 for a shared room. Now he pays €1,000 for his own place in Esquerra de l’Eixample.
As an IT worker, Vaglia wanted his own space to focus better on remote work. Barcelona has become an international meeting point, he notes. Especially for creatives and digital nomads.
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