Lorraine Williamson
Spain’s headcount has climbed to a new high, even as the country grows older and has fewer babies. According to Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), the resident population reached 49,442,844 people on 1 October 2025 — the highest level in the historical series.
The headline figure confirms a reality that policymakers have been grappling with for years: Spain’s population keeps rising, but not because more children are being born.
A bigger Spain, despite a shrinking ‘natural’ balance
Spain’s birth rate has remained low for a long time, while deaths increasingly outnumber births as the population ages. In plain terms, Spain would be slowly shrinking without arrivals from abroad.
That underlying trend is already visible in parts of inland Spain, where smaller towns struggle to keep services running as younger residents leave for jobs and education elsewhere.
Immigration is now the decisive factor
INE’s latest quarterly figures show Spain added 105,488 residents in the third quarter of 2025 alone, with an estimated a
The number of residents born outside Spain rose to 9,825,266, while the population born in Spain fell slightly quarter-on-quarter. In other words, immigration is not just supporting growth — it is effectively sustaining it.
Who is arriving — and who is returning
Spain’s migrant inflows continue to be shaped by work opportunities, family ties and language. INE lists the main immigrant nationalities in this release as Colombian, Spanish and Moroccan — with “Spanish” reflecting return migration by citizens coming back after periods abroad.
Recent years have also seen strong numbers from Venezuela, consistent with wider migration patterns from Latin America into Spain.
Where the population is growing fastest
Growth is not uniform across the country, but it is widespread. INE says the biggest percentage rises in this quarter were in Comunitat Valenciana (0.40%), Aragón (0.36%) and Castilla-La Mancha (0.34%).
As ever, big cities and many coastal areas remain magnets for new residents because that is where jobs, transport links and public services tend to cluster. In slower-growing interior provinces, immigration can still be the difference between stability and accelerated depopulation.
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The pressure points Spain can’t ignore
A record population is not automatically a problem — it can be a strength, particularly for a labour market that needs workers in sectors such as tourism, care, agriculture and services. But dependence on migration also raises policy questions that Spain cannot keep deferring.
Housing supply is one obvious fault line, especially in high-demand urban and coastal markets. Integration and access to stable work are another, because population growth only becomes economically sustainable when people can move quickly into secure employment, education and healthcare.
A record with a warning light
Spain’s new population peak is a sign of attractiveness and opportunity — but it also underlines how exposed the country is to its ageing trend. The political challenge for 2026 and beyond is to make growth work: faster pathways into jobs, adequate housing, and public services that can absorb demand without fraying at the edges.
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