The INE has informed the city of Calpe that the municipality has 22,725 inhabitants according to the census of 1 January. This means that the municipality has 1,092 new inhabitants. To reach this number and to avoid the decrease of the census requires a lot of work of the town council.
In recent years, under the direction of Hilde Backaert, the Padrón Department has taken various measures to prevent population loss. One of the problems identified is the lack of information from citizens, who in many cases are convinced that they are already registered as citizens of the city, or who do not know that the registration must be renewed if they are foreigners.
The various successive campaigns aimed at all foreign or non-resident citizens resident in Calpe call for registration or renewal. For months, advertisements were placed in the media, informative Mupis were used, explanatory brochures were sent out, flats were visited, etc. The media were also informed of the results of the survey. The residents' registration office carried out intensive educational work on the necessity of renewing the registration. In addition, letters in five languages were sent to foreigners who had not renewed their registration.
All these efforts led to the recovery of the population after it fell below 20,000 registered inhabitants in 2016 (with the consequent loss of transfers from the state), so that Calpe continues to win back residents and economic support.