MADRID, 7 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
A study by the State Association of Directors and Managers in Social Services reveals that 1,435 municipalities in Spain, 17.7%, do not have any catering establishment, the vast majority being small municipalities in which the average size does not even reach 100 inhabitants (99.5%). By communities, Castilla y León concentrates almost half of the population that lives in municipalities without bars.
According to this study, only eight municipalities with more than 400 inhabitants do not have catering establishments, emphasizing that “the lack of bars in a locality limits opportunities for personal development and social cohesion.” “Bars are the last redoubts against depopulation, as they are a core service for collective life,” the report highlights.
In Castilla y León, 3% of the population of the community lives without any catering establishment in their municipality. This is as a result of being the region with the largest number of municipalities with the smallest population size.
At the other extreme, there are five communities in which all their municipalities have restaurant services: the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Galicia, Madrid and Murcia.
By provinces, 35 of the 50 provinces have some municipality without bars, highlighting Burgos, Salamanca and Zamora. There are eight other provinces with more than 5,000 inhabitants in municipalities without bars: Navarra, Lleida, Huesca, Valladolid, Palencia and León.
