Nearly 900,000 people cross provincial borders every day to work in Spain, with Madrid accounting for 246,000 of these journeys, an 83% increase compared to ten years ago. Beatriz's case, who travels daily from Valladolid to the capital, is an example of the so-called expulsion effect.
The number of workers commuting to Madrid from other provinces has reached 246,000, an 83% increase compared to ten years ago, according to the latest labour mobility data. The capital thus consolidates itself as the major employment hub in Spain, but also as the epicentre of a phenomenon that experts call the expulsion effect: people no longer live where they work, but where they can afford housing.
A daily marathon of three hours
Beatriz wakes up every day at five in the morning in Valladolid to chain together bus, medium-distance train, and commuter train to Chamartín station, where she arrives before eight. Her two-year-old son Dylan accompanies her for part of the journey. The AVE covers the distance in 53 minutes, but its price makes it unfeasible for daily use.
"It's a marathon," summarises Beatriz, whose case was featured on the La Tarde programme on COPE.Her experience reflects the reality of thousands of people who have been expelled from Madrid due to housing prices and now live where their salary allows.
Deficit of 750,000 homes
The Bank of Spain estimates that the country has an accumulated deficit of 750,000 homes between 2021 and 2025. Last year, 240,000 new homes were created, but only 92,000 were completed, meaning that for every house that comes to market, nearly three families appear looking for somewhere to live. More than half of this imbalance is concentrated in six provinces: Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante, Valencia, Murcia, and Málaga, which also account for the majority of employment.
The sectors that most contribute to this interprovincial mobility are public administration, education, and healthcare, which account for 28% of jobs, followed by transport and communications (15%) and finance and professional services (another 15%).
The magnet of Madrid
Madrid not only attracts workers from neighbouring provinces like Toledo (77,000 daily commutes) or Guadalajara (43,500), but also from farther away like Valladolid, which is better connected by AVE. In total, nearly 900,000 people cross provincial borders every day to work in Spain, more than 4% of the total employment in the country, the highest figure recorded so far, according to research by the newspapers of the Vocento group.
Journalist Julio Llorente pointed out that the solution does not only lie in building more homes, but in better distributing job opportunities to prevent Madrid from continuing to absorb the population from half of Spain. Meanwhile, for Beatriz and many others, day-to-day life remains a marathon of 400 kilometres.
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