Rural resilience factors in the Balearic Islands, 1950-1991

Abstract

This article analyses the impact of the first tourism boom, 1955–1973, and the second, 1985–1991, on rural Mallorca. The results suggest that during the first period, the rural penalty increased very significantly, triggering an increase in intra-provincial migration. Thus, rural resilience was not based on the retention of young natives, but on the substitution of the local population by internal migrants from the Balearic Islands and mainland Spain. Rural municipalities with a higher degree of economic diversification and access to urban markets had a greater capacity for the retention of young natives and demographic growth.