The population of Madrid generally increased from when the city became the national capital in the mid-16th century and has stabilised at about 3 million from the 1970s.
From around 1970 until the mid-1990s, the city's population dropped. This phenomenon, which also affected other European cities, was caused in part by the growth of satellite suburbs at the expense of the downtown. Another reason might have been the slowdown in the rate of growth of the European economy.