Spain losing hoards of foreigners

Figures released by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) today (Tuesday) show that Spain’s population, which had been growing at a fast pace since the late 1990s, shrank in 2013 for the second year in a row.

The report revealed that total population on January 1, 2014 stood at 46.7 million, down from the highest registered level of 47.2 million in 2011.

For two years in a row, 2011 and 2012, there were 15,229 and 190,020 fewer non-Spanish residents respectively.

However, the biggest fall was recorded last year, with a massive 545,980 fewer foreign nationals living in Spain.

2013 saw 313,446 fewer foreigners from the EU in Spain, and 232,534 fewer from non-EU countries.

The INE figures also show that the number of Spaniards increased by 141,361 individuals.

These numbers reflect people who are on the system (the padrón), but leave out individuals who never signed up.

The increase in the number of registered Spaniards could be as a result of foreigners being nationalized after living in Spain for a certain amount of time.

On January 1 2014 foreigners represented 10.7% of the total padrón records (around five million individuals out of a total population of 46.7 million).

The most highly-populated regions of the country continue to be Andalucia, Catalonia, Madrid and Valencia.