The Spanish Institute of Statistics has just released some interesting data about the number of over 85 year olds living in Spain.There are in fact almost a million and the rati of women to men is approximately 2:1.

These statistics indicate that the warm climate and lifestyle make Spain one of the western world’s best places for the elderly to live.This group of people in their mid 80’s or over represent 2.1% os Spains overall population.

Cataluna has the highest number of people in this age bracket with Andalucia in the warm south coming in second.Madrid is third on the list with the Communidad of Valencia being forth out of the 17  of Spains autonomously governed regions.

The region with the fewest within this age group comes from the wine growing area of Rioja.However this region is also the most sparsely populated of all 17 regions.It would be interesting to know what % these 8,435 people are of the total population for the Rioja region and how that compares with the national percentage.