Reports and research

Re-City report

Inequality in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area



The report "Inequality in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area" presents an analysis of inequality in the AMB and its member municipalities, including its causes and consequences, based on the indicators defined by the Re-City platform and its Academic Network, with the aim of offering a new perspective to approach the reality of inequality in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, with special attention to the capacity of municipalities to deal with it.

This report will analyze the main indicators that serve us to measure the inequality of resources in the AMB and what is the inequality of the distribution of income in the municipalities of the AMB through various measures. Subsequently, an inter-municipal analysis of the triggers of resource inequality and the effects of resource inequality on the AMB is conducted. Finally, the possible determinants of the differences in local public spending and local social spending in AMB municipalities will be analyzed. Inequality in the AMB experienced a sharp increase during the Great Recession, and levels of pre-crisis income distribution have not yet recovered.

In the case of inequalities within metropolitan municipalities, various degrees of income concentration are observed, with very homogeneous municipalities such as Badia del Vallès and very unequal municipalities such as Torrelles de Llobregat or Gavà. The average income in the municipality, the population density, the unemployment rate or the productive structure of the municipality appear as relevant variables to understand the level of intramunicipal inequality in the municipalities of the AMB.