In modern societies, changes in population patterns are often studied based on a rural vs urban duality. This dichotomous simplification overlooks the existence of a broad range of human settlements, especially in the rural world. In this work, we quantified and analysed southern Spain’s population and rural settlements from the late eighteenth century to the present, distinguishing three types of settlements: agrotowns, the villages and dispersed settlements. To do this, we drew on a littleused source, Spanish property censuses, published since the mid-nineteenth century, as well as other historical sources. We observed that in southern Spain, characterised by a large number of agrotowns and scattered settlements, the method selected to estimate the rural population largely determined the settlement results obtained. We found that since the mid-twentieth century, the rural population had fallen not only in numbers but also in diversity. Historically, the rural population was heterogeneous, adapting to the territory in a context of organic economy and a reduced amount of trading. Especially notable was the weight of dispersed settlements, which accounted for almost two-thirds of rural population growth until the mid-twentieth century and for almost half the rural population •We quantified and analysed the evolution of different types of rural habitats in southern Spain between 1787 and 2017•Population living in villages (main rural nuclei) has remained relatively stable during the last 220 years•Dispersed population comprised up to 40 % of rural population and was responsible of ∼60 % rural depopulation between 1960 and 2000•Agrotowns have historically been located the Valley and reached ∼10 % of rural population by mid-20th Century•Geographical factors and legacies from the Reconquista process (initiated in 1212) explain the spatial distribution of settlements.