The Spanish population stood at the historical maximum of 48,946,035 citizens on October 1 (latest data available) after increasing by 1.5 million since January 1, 2022. Funcas highlights that this growth has fundamentally come from the population with foreign nationality, which has contributed 1.2 million citizens (84%), while the population with Spanish nationality has increased by 232,000 people, which is why it has chosen this percentage as ‘Data of the year’.
The foreign population has gone from representing 11.6% of the total population at the beginning of the period considered to representing 13.8%. This trend is relevant as it has sustained the growth of the economy and job creation.especially in the sectors most affected by labor shortages.
All the autonomous communities have experienced a strong increase in the foreign population, which has more than compensated for the loss of the Spanish population (except in Extremadura, the only community where the total population has decreased in the same period). The influx of immigrants has been especially pronounced in some of the regions most threatened by demographic decline, such as Asturias, Castilla y León and Galicia. Conversely, the growth of the foreign population has been generally lower in territories where its weight was already high, such as the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands or Catalonia.
In the expansion stage prior to the 2008 crisis the population registered very intense growth, 70% of immigration comes from. With the outbreak of the crisis, growth slowed down, and even from 2012 to 2015 the total population decreased due to the departure of the immigrant population. Starting in 2016, the number of inhabitants increased again, although at more moderate rates, stagnating in 2020 and 2021, the years of the pandemic. Starting in 2022, a new stage of strong growth begins, supported, as in the first years of the century, by the contribution of the immigrant population.
Labor market impact
40% of the employment created between the first quarter of 2022 and the third quarter of 2024 has been occupied by foreigners, according to Social Security affiliation figures. In sectors such as hospitality, commerce and construction the percentage has been between 45% and 60%and, in agriculture, 80%. In this way, 13.4% of the total Social Security affiliates in the third quarter of 2024 were foreigners, two percentage points more than at the beginning of 2022.
The Active Population Survey (EPA) shows an even greater weight of foreigners in the growth of employment in the period, 45%, and, in addition, they have accounted for 57% of the increase in the active population, that is, of the contribution of new labor to the economy. 15% of the total number of current employees are, according to the EPA, of foreign nationality, compared to 12.7% in the first quarter of 2022.
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