The Region of Murcia closes 2021 with more than 235,000 foreigners, almost 3% more than the previous year

The number of foreign citizens residing in the Region of Murcia stood, as of December 31, 2021, at 235,411, after increasing 2.8% in the last year compared to the previous one, when they were 228,902, according to data from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Services and Migrations. The increase tripled the national average, which grew by 3.6%, to exceed six million for the first time (6,007,553).

51.3% of foreigners residing in the Region of Murcia are men. The largest community is the Moroccan, with 88,839 foreigners residing in the community, followed by the Ecuadorian (23,494), the English (22,015), the Romanian (18,564), the Bulgarian (9,258), the Bolivian (7,570), the Ukrainian (6,738), the Chinese (4,409) and the Colombian (4,157).

The information of the Ministry of Inclusion is prepared through the files of the Central Registry of Foreigners, which is managed by the General Directorate of Police (Ministry of the Interior). These statistics include foreigners from third countries or migrants, community foreigners or their relatives; and the British and their families with documentation based on the agreement between the two countries after Brexit.

3.4 million from the EU

In Spain there are 2,345,921 foreigners from third countries or migrants (residence card) as opposed to 3,480,047 foreigners from the EU (registration certificate). In the latter case, the figure drops by more than 10,000 people compared to 2020 due to the replacement of this certificate in the case of British people and their families with new documentation after Brexit. In fact, the British with this residence permit have gone from 65,891 in 2020 to 181,585 counted a year later.

In general, the accumulated growth of the foreign resident population in the last five years is 19% and in 2021 there has been a similar year-on-year increase to years prior to Covid-19 (207,093 people, almost 4%), which which is slightly more than one point above the growth produced in 2020, but still below what was observed in the year immediately prior to the pandemic.

In this way, the growth experienced last year is fundamentally due to the 81,369 more people with residence permits, that is, migrants from third countries whose year-on-year growth stood at 3.6%, and to the new 115,694 British or family members documented with the Brexit model, which have experienced a growth of 176%.

The average age, 40 years

Nationwide, 52% of foreigners residing in Spain are men and the average age is 40 years. In addition, the Romanian community is the largest, with 1,093,231 foreigners residing in the country, followed by the Moroccan (829,992), the British (407,628), the Italian (377,143) and the Chinese (231,019).

It should be noted that as of December 31, 2021, the number of Ukrainians residing in Spain was 95,469, ranking 14th among the most numerous communities in the country, and with a growth of 2.2% in the last year. Despite the fact that Russian citizens are fewer, a total of 70,111, they have experienced an increase of 7.4 percent in the last year (5 more points of increase than in that registered in the previous year).

In total, fifteen nationalities account for almost 75% of the total number of foreign residents in Spain and seven of them correspond to countries of the European Union, among which Romania (18%) and Italy (6%) stand out.