Foreigners drive Spain's biggest population boom in history
Spain is now home to more than 49.4 million people and almost 20% of them were born somewhere else
Spain’s population has reached a record-breaking 49,442,844 people after growing by 105,488 in the third quarter of 2025. The figures, released by the National Institute of Statistics this week, confirm that the country has more residents than ever before.
The record rise has been fuelled almost entirely by people born outside Spain. Over the past year, the population has grown by 474,454, even as the number of Spain-born residents continues to fall.
There are now around 9.8 million people living in Spain who were born abroad, which means roughly 19.9% of the population is foreign-born.
Of these, nearly three million have since taken Spanish nationality, while the rest make up a growing community of more than 7.1 million foreign residents. During the last three months alone, that group expanded by 78,937 people, compared to an increase of 26,551 among those holding Spanish citizenship.
The most common newcomers were from Colombia, Spain’s largest source of new arrivals, with 32,100 Colombians choosing to make the country their home. They were followed by Spaniards returning from abroad (24,500), Moroccans (23,400), Venezuelans (20,500) and Peruvians (16,000).
Italians, Algerians, Argentinians, Ukrainians and Romanians also featured strongly in the statistics.
What might come as a surprise is that the British no longer feature among the top nationalities, partly because many long-term residents have taken Spanish nationality since Brexit and because the community is growing more slowly than others. In addition, most newcomers to Spain are younger people arriving for work or to start a new life, rather than retirees like many of the British who settled years ago.
On the other side of the balance sheet, departures from Spain were led by Spanish nationals, with 9,100 people leaving the country, followed by 8,200 Colombians and 7,900 Moroccans.
Every autonomous community saw its population increase during the third quarter, as did the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. The largest rises were recorded in the Valencian Community (0.40%), Aragon (0.36%) and Castilla-La Mancha (0.34%).
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A full range of individually tailored care services in Andalucía, Murcia, Alicante and all over Spain
Angels Nursing Care is one of the largest nursing agencies in southern Spain, caring for and supporting British and international expats living in this country, and is a fully registered and regulated medical company under Spanish law.
The mission of Angels is to provide you with a better quality of life and wellbeing, providing a support structure you can turn to at any time and enabling you to be as independent as possible for as long as possible with as much or as little support as you require. The company is based in the province of Almería but the network of carers offers support all over southern Spain, including the Costa Cálida in Murcia, the Costa del Sol in Málaga and the Costa Blanca in Alicante, reaching not only the coast itself but also inland areas.
6 Years Later
We have been clients of Angels for over 6 years, first when we lived in Almería (In the Community) and now in Sensara (Independent Living) in Benalmádena in the Costa Del Sol. During that time we have received from Angels dedicated nurses and carers emotional, physical and medical care, plus support dealing with Spanish authorities that we, as a couple, have needed through a progressive illness, ocular surgery and major spinal surgery without losing any of our independence.
Mr & Mrs K
Providing personal care are a large network of carefully selected healthcare and medical professionals who strive to improve the quality of life of those who need care at home: they all share the belief that caring for you is a privilege, ensuring that the care provided is all about you.
After years of experience the service provided by Angels carers also guarantees that you can rely on full privacy, dignity and respect, with the services offered including the following:
- Pre- and post-operative care
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These are just some of the services offered, but with the experience in helping families with support all carers are aware that each client has individual needs, customize their services accordingly.
Mr & Mrs G
To learn more about reliable, professional and individually tailored care services contact Angels Nursing Care for a free initial assessment with the clinical lead nurse.
