Spain has set a new population record in 2023. The population grew by more than half a million people in one year. This growth is mainly due to an increase in the number of foreign residents.
In the past year, the Spanish population grew by 507,548 people, an increase of 1.06%. This brings the total number of inhabitants to 48,592,909. This figure represents the highest number in the historical series. This is mainly due to the growth of the foreign population, which now accounts for 18.05% of the total with 8,775,213 people.
In the last three months of 2023, the residential population in Spain increased by 85,870 people, confirming the upward trend of the last year and a half, with annual growth rates of more than 1%.
At the beginning of 2024, 42,101,407 people with Spanish nationality lived in Spain and 6,491,502, 13.36%, with another nationality. This figure is lower than that of people born abroad due to the processes of acquiring nationality.
Diversity in nationalities
The diversity of nationalities among the newcomers is striking. Colombians and Venezuelans topped the list with 42,600 and 27,300 arrivals respectively in the fourth quarter of 2023. They were followed by Moroccans with 25,800. Spaniards, Moroccans and Romanians, on the other hand, were the largest groups to leave the country.
Female majority, male minority
Interestingly, of the total population at the beginning of the year, 51% were women. However, among foreign nationalities there are more men than women: 3,248,639 and 3,242,863 respectively. The number of households has also increased, with an increase of 243,868 in the past year.
Population growth by region
Andalucia remains the most populous region, followed by Catalonia and Madrid. These have exceeded eight and seven million inhabitants respectively. The Comunidad Valenciana follows with more than 5.3 million inhabitants.
During the fourth quarter of 2023, almost every region and autonomous city saw population growth, with the exception of Andalucia and Extremadura. The largest growth rates were recorded in Melilla, Madrid, the Valencian Community, and Murcia, among others.
Also read: The leaders in Spanish population growth are three cities on the Costa del Sol
