Since 'Democracy' (c.1975) and the advent of cheap travel the settlement has expanded from a pastoral village of some 6000 souls to a dormitory town of Madrid with a population of almost 100,000. As of 2010 there are still two flocks of sheep which graze on the riverbank of the Rio Guardarrama nature-park. Wild pigs, displaced from their natural habitat by building, are sometimes found in the streets of El Cantizal and El Molino de la Hoz in the north of the township.