The Government announces 80 million in aid against depopulation for municipalities

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge has announced, for the 2026 financial year, grants for a maximum total amount of 80,000,000.00 euros intended to finance innovative territorial transformation and fight against depopulation projects promoted by local entities. The call is formalized in the Order of September 28, 2026, whose summary is published in the Official State Gazette (no. 248, of October 6, 2026, Sec. V-B, page 52706) with the official reference BOE-B-2026-32466. Applications may be submitted within a period of one month starting from the day following the publication of the summary.

Who can apply for the grants

The following entities may be beneficiaries for actions developed within their territorial scope:

• The local entities listed in Article 3 of Law 7/1985, of April 2, Regulating the Bases of the Local Regime, with the exception of metropolitan areas.
• Other local entities regulated by regional legislation that have been assigned sufficient competencies and management capacity.
• Single-province autonomous communities, in the exercise of the competencies proper to provincial councils in accordance with Article 40 of Law 7/1985.
• Groupings of local entities constituted under Article 11.3 of Law 38/2003, of November 17, General Law on Subsidies, provided that all grouped entities meet the admissibility conditions.
• Consortia attached to the Local Administration defined in Article 118 of Law 40/2015, of October 1, on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector.

Project Requirements

The call requires that the submitted initiatives meet three conditions:

• Provide a comprehensive vision of the demographic problem of the area where they will be developed, address different perspectives and, preferably, offer transferable responses to other rural areas with similar demographic problems.
• Promote the social and economic reactivation of areas with depopulation problems through the revaluation of the rural space, from a socioeconomic, environmental, and gender dimension.
• Have innovative content for the territory, so that they promote new economic activities, the generation of jobs, or the maintenance of existing ones.

Regulatory Bases and Processing

The call is supported by Order TED/1358/2021, of December 1, which establishes the regulatory bases for the granting of these subsidies (“BOE” no. 290, of December 4, 2021), modified by Order TED/1074/2025, of September 24 (“BOE” no. 238, of October 3, 2025).

The summary is published in accordance with the provisions of articles 17.3.b and 20.8.a of Law 38/2003, of November 17, General Law on Subsidies, and the full text of the call may be consulted in the National Subsidies Database, with the identifier BDNS 931934. The order bears the signature of the Third Vice President and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Sara Aagesen Muñoz.

An increasing allocation

The amount of this line has grown steadily in recent editions, according to the summaries published in the Official State Gazette:

• Fiscal year 2022: 10,315,000.00 euros (reference BOE-B-2022-13814).
• Fiscal year 2023: 16,234,430.00 euros (reference BOE-B-2023-19877).
• Fiscal year 2024: 19,472,759.56 euros (reference BOE-B-2024-24444).
• Fiscal year 2026: 80,000,000.00 euros (reference BOE-B-2026-32466).

The jump compared to previous calls makes this edition the one with the highest allocation in the series and reinforces the role of the program as a state instrument against the demographic challenge.

The call arrives at a time when city councils, provincial councils, associations of municipalities, and rural consortia are seeking funding for projects that stabilize the population and diversify economic activity. The one-month deadline from the publication of the summary forces interested entities to prepare their documentation quickly, as the application calendar is tight and the competitive process requires proof of the innovative and transferable nature of each initiative.

Source: Official State Gazette, no. 248, of October 6, 2026, Sec. V-B, page 52706 (official reference: BOE-B-2026-32466).