Alicante province is getting older

OVER the last few months, 119 people celebrated their 100th birthday in Alicante province.

There are now 508 centenarians in the province, of whom 339 are women and 169 men.

A little over 19 per cent – 358,435 – of Alicante province’s registered population of 1,842,963 are over 65. The population is ageing and for the first time since 1999 there were more deaths than births, according to INE, Spanish statistics’ office.

A total of 8,286 people died and 7,312 babies were born during the first half of 2015, with the majority of deaths occurring between January and March. This tendency is repeated in INE’s figures for the Valencian Community’s three provinces with a total of 23,863 deaths and 29,913 births.