Colombians, the foreigners with the most growth in residence permits in Spain

Colombians were the nationality with the highest percentage growth among foreigners with residence authorization in Spain in 2023, with an increase of 33 percent compared to the previous year, up to 156,266 permits, according to official data.

This is within the framework of the fact that more than 6.8 million people have the necessary papers to reside in Spain, according to the Ministry of Migration.

The Ministry's statistics reflect that In 2023 the increase in the case of Peruvians was 27 percent, up to 71,151 authorizations; from 25th among Venezuelans, up to 168,736; 20th among Honduran nationals, with 57,770; and 8 in those of Paraguay, which totaled 46,257 at the end of 2023.

Ecuador appears with 115,814 without interannual variation, while Bolivia appears with 56,410 and a decrease of 4 percent.

The ministry warns that the fact that a person has valid residence documentation does not guarantee that they are actually in Spain, since they have been able to leave and therefore there may be more residence permits than registered foreigners.

A paradigmatic case is that of the Romanians: they have 1.1 million registration certificates in force, but those registered are around 630,000.

In the case of Moroccans, the opposite happens, since There are more registered residents than people with a valid residence permit – about 100,000 – although the data cannot be compared exactly, since the latest figures from the registry are from January 2023 and the permits from December.

The Migration balance includes 2,922,830 foreigners from outside the European Union, subject to the immigration law, with a valid residence permit, while the registration certificates of Europeans, the cards of their relatives and the British, with a different procedure after Brexit, total 3,889,868.

The temporary protection granted to Ukrainians since 2022, after the Russian aggression, has placed this nationality in second place, after the Moroccans and ahead of the Chinese.

There are more than 787,000 Moroccans with valid documentation, almost 274,500 Ukrainians and nearly 237,000 Chinese.

Behind them are Venezuelans (168,736), Colombians (156,266) and Ecuadorians (115,814) and the rest of the nationalities are below 100,000 authorizations..

The average age of these foreigners is 37 years, compared to
44 years of the general population residing in Spain, and there is a slight prevalence of men (53%) over women.

Although in cases like Honduras and Nicaragua more than 70 percent are women.

Migrations highlights that this group contributes significantly to the rejuvenation and growth of the population in Spain: while in the Spanish population people aged 65 and over represent 22% of the total, in foreigners with residence authorization that age group It only represents 5%.

EFE