One in 10 Spanish residents is a foreigner
Expatica News
25 July 2006
MADRID Almost one in 10 people living in Spain is a foreigner, according to the latest figures from the National Statistics Institute (INE).
On 1 January, there were 3.88 million foreigners registered with Spanish town halls, 8.7 percent of the countrys population of 44,395,300.
The Spanish population has grown by 287,000 people in the last year and 154,000 of the new residents are from abroad.
Catalonia has the largest amount of foreigners 866,800 of them followed by Madrid (695,000) and Valencia.
Moroccans make up the largest non-Spaniard community, 13.77 percent of the foreign population, some 535,000 people.
Ecuadorians follow (10.29 percent),
along with Romanians (9.83 percent).
British residents of Spain are the fourth largest community, totalling 274,000 and representing just over 7 percent of the foreign population. Britons also represent the second fastest growing nationality in Spain after the Romanian community. Last year, an extra 45,000 British newcomers arrived while 64,000 Romanians arrived here.
Of all the foreigners registered with town halls, almost a quarter come from the European Union (916,100), almost a third are from South America and almost a fifth are African.
The figures only include foreigners who have registered with town halls and this year the INE has excluded non-EU residents who have not renewed their town hall registration after two years.
