Inhabiting the void is an oxymoron: despite the low population density of many Galician municipalities, people still live there. But how many? We compare the 20 Galician municipalities with the lowest population density with the region’s 5 cities.

Baleira is a town of barely 1,000 inhabitants in the Galician region of A Fonsagrada. A Fonsagrada is also the largest municipality by territory in Galicia and, yet, one of the most sparsely populated: it only has 7.5 inhabitants per square kilometer, while Vigo, the Galician city with the highest population, has 2,690. Baleira —which means empty— has an even lower population density: 6.9 inhabitants per km². Baleira is a complete metaphor for the phenomenon of depopulation in Galicia. In 50 years, its population has decreased by 50%.