There's a UC song that goes like this: "Ibiza is no longer Ibiza; / in Ibiza everything has changed: / we don't smoke cheap tobacco, / the fresh water has turned salty, / the dogs and the threshing floors sleep / and we speak in broken Spanish." (from the album Touch and re-touch, 1998).

Formentera could be a subject of study in Political Science textbooks. The smallest of the Pitiusas Islands (the southern Pitiusa, as many Formentera residents prefer to be called) has had its own council for 18 years. On July 10, 2007, with a simple political maneuver, the Formentera Town Hall was magically transformed into the Consell de Formentera, with political power equivalent to that of the other Balearic councils. Jaume Ferrer Ribas, candidate for the Gent per Formentera party, was its first president; Ferrer governed for three terms; Gent per Formentera governed in coalition with the PSOE for another term, in what constitutes one of the greatest demonstrations of political hegemony in the Balearic Islands (2007-2023).

Many of the changes the cultural sector in the Balearic Islands has undergone in the last 25 years can be summarized in one key point: the first steps have been taken toward the professionalization of its members. All the experts consulted agree that in the audiovisual, musical, literary, and theatrical fields, the first quarter of the 21st century has seen progress in the working conditions of those involved. These improvements are inextricably linked to certain public policies developed in this area—with the current catalog of available subsidies as a key component—which have led to the creation of jobs and training centers. They have also fostered a greater diversity of styles, themes, and genres explored by Balearic creators and, ultimately, greater recognition and connection with audiences, both local and international.

"A population bomb"—that's how experts like Pere Salvà, retired professor of Human Geography at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), describe the population growth experienced by the Balearic Islands in the last 25 years. The cause of this phenomenon is simple: migration. Islanders are having fewer and fewer children. In fact, the arrival of migrants has not been able to reverse the aging of the population. However, an increase of this magnitude in a limited territory has profoundly affected the quality of life of residents, who, in addition to a loss of purchasing power, find it almost impossible to access housing these days. In 2000, the Balearic Islands had around 800,000 inhabitants, and 25 years later, that number exceeds 1.2 million. Never before, in such a short time, have the Islands experienced such an intense, rapid, and profound demographic transformation. "It's a very significant increase, similar to that of the 1960s and 70s worldwide," explains Salvà, also noting that more than 80% of the population increase is due to net migration, a percentage that rises to 99% when analyzing the last seven years.

The first quarter of the 21st century has left a profound mark on the Balearic education system. Accelerated demographic changes, growing inequalities, linguistic debates, new educational opportunities, and a university that has evolved in size and scientific ambition have shaped a very different scenario from that of the beginning of the millennium. This report looks back to understand the present and project into the future.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Balearic Islands entered a new phase of economic growth with a territory already under considerable strain. 25 years later, the islands' landscape tells a story of contrasts: more protected areas and greater environmental awareness, but also increased human pressure, fewer natural resources, and the increasingly visible effects of climate change.

One figure among the many that illustrate the island's reality is enough to understand what has happened in the first 25 years of the 21st century in territorial terms: water consumption has skyrocketed to such an extent that, to meet the needs of the growing population and a tourism sector attracting more than fifteen million people, water desalination has increased by 220%. In 1999, the Balearic Islands desalinated 10.2 million cubic meters of water; in 2024, this figure reached 32.9 million. This increase in desalination, with "the associated energy consumption," as the GOB (Balearic Ornithological Group) has denounced on several occasions, represents "a clear example of the unsustainability of the Balearic development model," in the words of its spokesperson, Margalida Ramis. Along these same lines, geographer Ivan Murray determined, in a study conducted a few years ago, that the Islands consume what they don't have: "We would need 16 archipelagos like ours to balance resource consumption and the territory's capacity to generate them," he states. The increase in desalination, with eight units currently installed and four more on the way, demonstrates how the Islands have based their economic model on "occupying more and more territory, causing significant alteration of the natural environment over the past 25 years," says Miquel Àngel March, former spokesperson for the GOB (Balearic Ornithological Group). "The rural land, which has been transformed into urban development, is an example of this phenomenon that seems to have no solution," he laments. The artificialization of the land

Water consumption far exceeding the islands' capacity can also be seen in energy and waste production. The Pla de Mallorca, Formentera, and Ibiza are facing a very complicated water situation, "and desalination alone is not the solution. What's needed is to stop it once and for all," explains March. According to data from Terraferida, an organization that emerged precisely during this quarter-century of runaway growth, "between 2015 and 2021, approximately 11.2 square kilometers of land in Mallorca were developed, most of which (nearly 70%) was agricultural or forest land unaffected by previous urbanization," states Jaume Adrover: "Intact fields and forests were transformed by concrete in just six years, a rate that reflects the uncontrolled expansion of land and resource consumption."

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At the beginning of the 21st century, the Balearic countryside was still reeling from the consequences of the rural exodus it suffered mainly in the second half of the 20th century. The expansion of mass tourism recruited many workers from the primary sector. In addition to the loss of labor, during the first quarter of the century farmers had to face the crisis of the traditional agricultural model, price disparities with the mainland, the loss of rural land, and adverse weather events, among other problems. However, in a sense, Balearic society has become more aware of the importance of the primary sector in the Islands, which has had to reinvent itself to survive. Nevertheless, Foravila has accumulated regulations, bureaucracy, and problems that are increasingly stifling it. "We are worse off than at the beginning of the century," summarizes Joana Mascaró, manager of Unió de Petits Agricultors i Ganaders (UPA-AIA). Foravila is becoming a wasteland

The loss of agricultural workers led to the abandonment of the land and also of traditional monocultures. In fact, 99% of the dryland almond trees that years ago produced Mallorca's almonds no longer exist. In the early 2000s, the rural countryside began to be perceived socially as a landscape rather than as productive land. "The countryside became a vacant lot with the arrival of city dwellers, speculators, and people who wanted to live in luxury," explains Miquel Gual, president of the San Bartolomé de Sóller Agricultural Cooperative. Furthermore, this problem, which began around the year 2000, has worsened with the increased tolerance of the authorities in authorizing certain uses that are inappropriate for rural areas. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the Balearic Islands have lost 28,500 hectares of agricultural land and 1,700 farms in ten years (from 2013 to 2023). Regarding agricultural products, between 2015 and 2020, production decreased for cereals (from 49,341 to 48,937 tons), legumes (from 3,090 to 2,057 tons), tubers (from 58,284 to 8,284 tons), citrus fruits (from 10,739 to 6,535 tons), stone fruits (from 2,031 to 1,200 tons), nuts (from 7,364 to 3,956 tons), and vegetables (from 5 to 5,000 tons). The livestock sector is not immune to this decline. Mascaró points out that "in Mallorca, only 10% of the dairy farms that existed around the year 2000 remain." Regarding milk production, he explains that in the same period, production has fallen from 40 million liters per year to seven million. All of this has led to the disappearance of feed mills and other activities related to the sector, while others face an uncertain future, as is the case with Agama. Boom in organic farming

For the first 25 years of this century, the trend toward organic farming was the complete opposite of that of traditional agriculture. In 2000, the area dedicated to organic farming in the Balearic Islands was 3,455 hectares, according to data published by the Balearic Council for Organic Agricultural Production (CBPAE). That figure has increased significantly. In 2024, organic farming reached 50,542 registered hectares, and compared to 2023, it added 43 new operators, reaching a total of 1,301. These figures demonstrate that "organic farming in the Balearic Islands has ceased to be an ideology," celebrates Joan Gaià, coordinator of Unió de Pagesos (Farmers' Union). At the beginning of the implementation of this model, farmers questioned its profitability, since the products used are more expensive. But over the years, farmers have found that organic techniques mitigate the effects of climate change and also make better use of the Balearic Islands' natural resources, which have dwindled over the past 25 years. That's why Gaià points out that organic farming "is the future of the Balearic countryside." Along the same lines, he insists that "for things to go well" in the next 25 years, "conventional agriculture should almost disappear, although some of its practices should be preserved."

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As the sun rises, the residents of Son Güells close their front doors to begin their workday. Son Güells is not a housing development, but a caravan settlement In Palma, which is beginning to take shape as a micro-neighborhood on wheels. The first quarter of the 21st century is ending, and living in a vehicle is just one example of the normalization ofhousing emergency that the Archipelago suffers. There are many more: living in shacks, abandoned buildings like the old Palma prison, apartments shared by several families, or rooms in houses where common areas have been eliminated and rented out.

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March 14, 2001. The ITB Berlin tourism trade fair was just days away, and there was great anticipation surrounding it because the sector was intensely engaged in the debate about implementing a tax on overnight stays for visitors. It was one of the major campaign promises of the Socialist president, Francesc Antich, who had broken the right-wing hegemony in 1999. Hoteliers had been criticizing the initiative for months, even claiming that its implementation would have devastating effects on demand. The then-president of the business association, Pere Cañellas, said: "If the mere announcement of the project already causes alarm, the consequences of its implementation could be disastrous." This opposition generated a climate of political and social tension, since while many saw the ecotax as a tool to transform tourism in the Balearic Islands towards a more sustainable model, hoteliers felt it as a threat to their profitability. The tension was extreme. Not only because, according to the sector, it went against business, but because "they considered it interference. They didn't like a government, much less a left-wing one, making decisions that affected the sector," recalled Celestí Alomar, then Minister of Tourism and at that time a public enemy of the sector. But let's return to Berlin. In the midst of a crossfire between the government and the hoteliers, the GOB spokesperson, Miquel Àngel March, surprised everyone by calling a press conference at none other than the headquarters of the German federal government. German and foreign media listened to the explanations of the environmental leader, based on a very comprehensive report: "We have gone from 5.9 million tourists in 1991 to almost double that, 11 million, in 2001. The consumption of resources caused by this runaway growth is unsustainable, and you will be aware of it." That's why March was calling on the international press for "a tax to mitigate the impacts of this activity, which is not an attack, but a tool to guarantee environmental conservation and the quality of tourism." That visit to Germany still held one more surprise: a meeting with members of the German Ministry of Finance, where the environmentalists presented the draft ecotax law translated into German. One of the masterminds behind that trip, Gerald R. Hau, a geographer and member of Euronatur, recalls that "it was a significant move. The Antich government had courage, but great inexperience. Our action ensured that the entire German press saw the rigor of the GOB's analysis and that the measure wasn't a whim. Germans will be happy to pay for the environmental benefits." "When we returned to Mallorca, we met with Antich's government and confirmed that the decision to implement it was already irreversible. We modestly contributed to its approval by demonstrating that the hotel industry's alarmist claims were unfounded. Look what ended up happening. In retrospect, it's laughable."

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President Francesc Antich left office in the 1990s promising a progressive future, but Marga Prohens ends 2025 worried about the rise of the far right. Along the way, the Balearic Islands have been one of the most blatant examples of corruption in the Spanish state. The imprisonment of Maria Antònia Munar (Unió Mallorquina) in 2013 is one of the essential snapshots for remembering this first quarter-century. These have also been 25 years of major mobilizations: the most recent against tourist overcrowding and housing prices.

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Over the past 25 years, the public health system of the Balearic Islands has undergone a profound transformation marked by the construction of new hospitals and the closure of old ones. Son DuretaTechnological modernization and the brutal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic have shaped the Balearic healthcare system since the late 1990s. For decades, Son Dureta Hospital (opened in 1955 as the Virgen de Lluc Health Residence) was the island's main referral center. However, over time its facilities became outdated, and in the early 2000s, with the People's Party (PP) in power, the political decision was made to build a new main referral hospital, Son Espases, disregarding the previous agreement of the Pact for Progress with the national government to renovate the old hospital's facilities. The process culminated in January 2012. when the definitive closure of Son Dureta was certified After the transfer of all services to Son Espases.

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