A record number of Spaniards live abroad

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Nearly 2.8 million Spaniards live outside Spain, the highest number since 2009. That year the INE began compiling a register of immigrants. Additionally, the number has increased by 1.7 percent (47,712) compared to 2022.

Statistics show that 1,471,691 Spaniards lived abroad in 2009. Since then, this group has always been increasing annually. In 2010, the 1.5 million mark was surpassed for the first time (1,574,123); Two million (2,058,048) in 2014 and 2.5 million (2,545,729) in 2019.

However, in recent years there has been a slowdown in the emigration of Spaniards to another country, with an annual increase of 6.07% to 8.17% between 2010 and 2015; This trend has since declined.

Where do Spaniards stay?

58.7% of Spanish citizens registered as living abroad on January 1 were living in the United States; 37.7% in Europe and 3.6% in the rest of the world. The biggest increases in registrations over the past year were in Europe (+32,589) and the US (+19,698). Comparatively, the largest increases occurred in Europe (3.2%) and Oceania (1.3%).

23,845 more women than men living abroad; They live mostly in America, Europe and Oceania, while they settle mainly in Africa and Asia.

30.3% of Spaniards living abroad were born in Spain; 58.3% in their current country of residence and 11.3% in other countries. 15.1% were under 16 (50.5% in Europe); 62.8% were 16 to 64 years old (57.1% in the US), and 22.1% were at least 65 years old (74.5% in the US).

New records

Of new registrations made in the past year, the majority were US residents (56.8%) and those born in the country of residence (59%). Apart from Spain, the countries where most Spanish citizens lived on January 1 were Argentina (477,465), France (297,142) and the United States (192,766).

Among states with more than 10,000 inhabitants, the largest increases in relative terms were in the Spanish national population in Colombia (9.6%), Panama (5.9%) and the United States (5.3%).

The Spanish population decreased in seven countries: Venezuela (-2.8%), Peru (-1.6%), Morocco (-0.9%), Chile (-0.7%), Argentina (-0.6%) and Ecuador and Uruguay (down 0.1%). . both). In absolute terms, the largest increases in the Hispanic population over the past year were recorded in the United States (9,763), Mexico (7,122) and France (7,109). Argentina (down 2,694) and Venezuela (-3,869) saw the largest drop in the number of Spaniards.