Spain had a total population of 46,698,569 inhabitants on January 1, 2018, 0.3% more than the previous year, according to Census figures advancing just published the National Statistics Institute (INE). 41,979,151 people (89.9%) have Spanish nationality and 4,719,418 are foreigners (10.1% of the total).
During 2017, the number of Spaniards registered in the census was reduced by 20,174 people, while foreigners increased by 146,611 inhabitants (3.2% more than the previous year). The percentage growth was much higher among the non-community population (+ 5.1%) than among citizens belonging to the European Union (+ 0.2%).
In Spain, the number of foreigners had been increasing from 1998 to 2011, when the 5.8 million residents of other nationalities were reached. From that year, the number of foreigners began to decrease, which stood at 4.6 million in 2017. Last year, after five years of decline, the number of foreigners increased again.
By countries, the largest number of foreigners residing in Spain come from Morocco (769,050, 16.3% of the total foreign population). The second country is Romania (673,017), the third is the United Kingdom (240,934), the fourth is China (215,748) and the fifth is Italy (206,066).
During the year 2017, the countries that experienced a greater increase of residents in Spain were Venezuela (26,608 new residents), Colombia (20,250) and Morocco (19,380). The countries that reduced more their presence in absolute numbers were Romania (-14,716), Ecuador (-6,765) and Bulgaria (-3,939).
Average age of the foreign population
The average age of the whole population registered is 43.1 years. In the case of Spaniards, it is 43.9 years, while the average age of foreign citizens is considerably lower: 36 years. By nationality, the most average age are the British (53.5 years), Germans (49.3) and French (42.7). On the other hand, the youngest citizens are Hondurans (30.4 years on average), Moroccans (30.8) and Pakistanis (31).
