The Vega Baja del Segura and Vinalopó comarcas/comarques were lands disputed between the crowns of Castile and Aragon since the Reconquista, this being because they were conquered by Aragon but reserved for Castile under a treaty, hence they were repopulated by people from both crowns at different times, and the Alt Vinalopó (Villena influence area) was actually part of Murcia (Albacete province) until the nineteenth century.

Following the Black Death and later the Expulsion of the Moriscos, the then Valencian-speaking Bajo Segura (to which Orihuela and Torrevieja belong) is said to have been resettled mostly by people from Murcia, eventually defining the language border there (see Panocho dialect).

Muslim presence in the Kingdom of Valencia was very high, making one third of the entire population at the time of the expulsion (the highest proportion in all of Spain).

The Christian Valencian elites disapproved of King Philip's plans of Expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609, because the sudden lack of the traditional workforce would lead to the kingdom's ruin.

The Kingdom of Valencia thus ceased to exist as an institution and, in the early 19th century, it was divided into three different provinces, although its inhabitants continued to self-identify as Valencian and maintained their language.

The most important population centres used to be, during the Roman times, Sagunto and Dénia; later on in history, Valencia (València), Alicante (Alacant), Xàtiva, Orihuela, Elche (Elx), Gandia, Villarreal (Vila-real) and, more recently, Alzira and Castellón de la Plana (Castelló de la Plana).

Demographics were also affected by (being perhaps the exception to the mentioned distribution) the great industrial activity and the commerce of agriculturally derived products during the 20th century of noncoastal cities like Alcoy (Alcoi), Elda, Ontinyent, Petrer, Villena, and La Vall d'Uixó.