| Teruel Province | |
| Type: | Province |
| Coordinates: | 40.6667°N -40°W |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Spain |
| Subdivision Type1: | Autonomous community |
| Subdivision Name1: | Aragon |
| Seat Type: | Capital |
| Seat: | Teruel |
| Area Total Km2: | 14809 |
| Area Rank: | Ranked 10th |
| Area Note: | 2.93% of Spain |
| Blank Name Sec1: | Languages |
| Blank Info Sec1: | Spanish, Catalan (not official) --> |
| Population Total: | 134,572 |
| Population As Of: | 2018 |
| Population Rank: | Ranked 49th |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Population Demonym: | Turolense |
Teruel (Catalan: Terol in Catalan; Valencian pronounced as /təˈɾɔl/) is a province of Aragon, in the northeast of Spain. The capital is Teruel.
It is bordered by the provinces of Tarragona, Castellón, Valencia (including its exclave Rincón de Ademuz), Cuenca, Guadalajara, and Zaragoza. The area of the province is 14,809 km². Its population is 134,572 (2018), of whom about a quarter live in the capital, and its population density is 9.36/km². It contains 236 municipalities, of which more than half are villages of under 200 people. Teruel is the second-least populated province of Spain, and also the second-lowest in population density, in both counts after the province of Soria.
The main language throughout the province is Spanish (with official status), although Catalan is spoken in a northeastern area bordering Catalonia.
This province is located in the mountainous Sistema Ibérico area. The main ranges in the province of Teruel are Sierra de la Virgen, Sierra de Santa Cruz, Sierra de Cucalón, Sierra de San Just, Sierra Carrascosa, Sierra Menera, Sierra Palomera, Sierra de Javalambre, Sierra de Gúdar, Sierra de Albarracín and the Montes Universales, among others.
Most of the Teruel Province has undergone massive depopulation since the middle of the 20th century. This situation is shared with other areas in Spain, particularly with those near the Iberian mountain range (much of the provinces of Soria, Guadalajara and Cuenca) and with other areas in Aragón.
The exodus from the rural mountain areas in Teruel rose after General Franco's Plan de Estabilización in 1959. The population declined steeply as people migrated towards the industrial areas and the large cities in Spain, leaving behind their small villages where living conditions were often harsh, with cold winters and very basic facilities.
As a consequence there are many ghost towns in different parts of the province.[1]
A great number of surviving towns in Teruel province have only a residual population, reviving somewhat during the summer when a few city-dwellers spend their holidays there. Other causes of the strong emigration have been the low productivity of traditional agricultural practices, like sheep and goat farming, the closing of mines, like the large Sierra Menera mine near Ojos Negros,[2] as well as the lifestyle changes that swept over rural Spain during the second half of the 20th century.[3]
The "Teruel Exists" (Spanish; Castilian: link=no|Teruel existe) movement began at the turn of the 21st century. It is a platform of provincial authorities, institutions and sympathizers seeking to reverse the long-standing neglect of this province.[4]
The historical population is given in the following chart:
ImageSize = width:650 height:auto barincrement:30PlotArea = left:40 bottom:40 top:20 right:20DateFormat = x.yPeriod = from:0 till:270TimeAxis = orientation:horizontalAlignBars = lateScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:50 start:0ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:10 start:0BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo
PlotData= color:skyblue width:20 shift:(-50,-5) fontsize:M anchor:till bar:1877 from:0 till:249 text:248,765 bar:1887 from:0 till:247 text:246,817 bar:1900 from:0 till:252 text:251,994 bar:1910 from:0 till:266 text:265,908 bar:1920 from:0 till:264 text:264,062 bar:1930 from:0 till:264 text:263,700 bar:1940 from:0 till:246 text:245,960 bar:1950 from:0 till:243 text:243,269 bar:1960 from:0 till:224 text:223,758 bar:1970 from:0 till:174 text:173,861 bar:1980 from:0 till:153 text:153,457 bar:1990 from:0 till:144 text:143,680 bar:2000 from:0 till:136 text:135,858 bar:2010 from:0 till:143 text:143,162 bar:2020 from:0 till:134 text:134,176TextData= pos:(35,20) fontsize:M text:"Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE"
The following Comarcas of Aragon are located in Teruel Province: