Cadaqués has 2,906 inhabitants according to Idescat's register for 1 January 2025. In summer the figure soars: between July and September there are around 8,650 people on average, almost three times as many, because most of its houses are nobody's main home. Between January and March there are around 3,760.
Cadaqués had 2,906 registered residents on 1 January 2025, according to Idescat. That is the December town, shutters down and four tables out in the square. Summer is another place: between July and September there are around 8,650 people on average, almost three times as many. Here are the official figures, where they come from and what they mean if you are visiting.
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How many people live in Cadaqués
The register on 1 January 2025 gives 2,906 residents: 1,437 men and 1,469 women, in a municipality of 26.43 square kilometres, which works out at 110 people per square kilometre. These are the figures in the municipal profile from Idescat, the Catalan statistics institute.
It is a mixed and fairly elderly town. Of those 2,906, 1,041 were born abroad and 678 hold a foreign nationality. There are 585 people aged 65 or over and 293 under 15. In 2025, 8 children were born (provisional figure) and in 2024, 27 people died: if the town grows, it is because people move in, not because babies are born.
From 708 residents to 2,418, and back again
The Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana gives the long series: 708 inhabitants in 1718, 1,598 in 1787 and 2,418 in 1860. It was the century of vines, fishing and sea trade, the period also covered in the guide to getting to Cadaqués.
Then came phylloxera, which killed the vines, and with it a great wave of emigration to the Americas, above all to Cuba. By the 1900 census there were only 1,557 inhabitants, and the decline carried on slowly until it bottomed out in 1960 at 1,078. Some of those who left came back rich and built houses such as the Casa Blaua.
Recovery came with tourism: 1,272 inhabitants in 1970, 2,024 in 2001 and 2,906 in 2025. It has taken Cadaqués almost a century and a half to get back to the population it had in 1860.
How many people are there in summer
There is no official count for the busiest day in August. What Idescat does publish is the seasonal population: an estimate of how many people are actually in the town, counting anyone who sleeps, works or holidays there without being registered, and subtracting residents who are away. It is measured in full-time equivalent people: each day someone spends in Cadaqués counts as one three-hundred-and-sixty-fifth of a person.
With the 2024 figures (provisional), the 2,894 residents of that year are joined, on average, by 5,758 more people between July and September: around 8,650 in total, almost three times as many. Between April and June there are 2,799 more (around 5,690 people), between October and December 959 more (around 3,850) and between January and March only 869 more (around 3,760).
Across the whole year, Cadaqués averages 5,491 people, 189.7 % of its registered population. These are three-month averages: a Saturday in mid-August has more people than that, and a Tuesday in September fewer.
Where all those people sleep
Mostly in houses. The 2021 census counted 3,598 family dwellings in Cadaqués, of which only 1,155 were someone's main home: 32.1 %. The other 2,443 are second homes or houses that stand empty most of the year. The encyclopaedia sums it up by saying that tourism here is residential and that second homes far outnumber main ones.
Hotels fall short of explaining the summer. In 2025 Idescat counted 31 hotels with 1,271 beds and one campsite with 435 places. Even if they were all full, they would not reach a third of the 5,758 extra people present on average in the summer quarter.
What it means if you are visiting
That there are two Cadaqués. From January to March it is a town of around 3,760 people, locals in the bar and boats pulled up on the beach. From July to September it has more than twice as many people in the same narrow streets, and you notice it in the parking, at the tables and on the road in.
If you are after the quiet town, the figures point to autumn and winter: between October and December the extra people add up to a third of the residents, and between January and March even fewer. Spring sits in between, and June already starts to feel like summer.
Checked
Register, population structure, dwellings, hotels and campsite: Idescat's municipal profile for Cadaqués, consulted in October 2026. Seasonal population by quarter: Idescat seasonal population estimates (base 2021), 2024 figures provisional. Historical series from 1718 to 2001: Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana, entry for Cadaqués. The quarterly totals are our own sums, rounded to the nearest ten.
Quick questions
How many people are in Cadaqués in summer?
There is no official count for the busiest day. Idescat's estimate gives, on average between July and September, around 8,650 people: 2,894 residents and 5,758 more.
How many people are in Cadaqués in winter?
Between January and March there are around 3,760 people on average: the 2,894 residents and 869 more, according to Idescat.
How many inhabitants did Cadaqués used to have?
708 in 1718, 2,418 in 1860 and 1,078 in 1960, the low point after emigration to Cuba, according to the Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana.