Spain's Population Exceeds 48 Million First Time In History - Statistics

Spain's resident population has exceeded 48 million people for the first time in its history, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) said on Tuesday

MADRID (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd May, 2023) Spain's resident population has exceeded 48 million people for the first time in its history, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) said on Tuesday.

In the first quarter of 2023, Spain's resident population increased by 136.916 to 48.196.693 as of April 1, 2023, the report said. This is the highest figure in Spain's history since records began.

The institute noted that Spain's population growth can be attributed to an increase in the number of migrants, which compensates for the dwindling numbers of Spaniards. Thus, the number of foreigners in the first quarter grew by 149,530 people, reaching 6.2 million people.

The biggest shares of migrants arriving in Spain in the first quarter of 2023 belonged to Colombians with 44,300 arrivals, Moroccans (23,200) and Venezuelans (21,500), the report said.

At the same time, a majority of emigrants were Spaniards (11,500 of whom left the country), Moroccans (8,400) and Romanians (7,700), it added.

The report said that on an annualized basis, the estimated population growth is 590,184, the highest since 2008.

The INE estimated that the population increased in 15 Autonomous Communities and slightly decreased in the remaining two, Extremadura and Galicia, as well as in the Autonomous Cities of Ceuta and Melilla. The largest increases in relative terms were in the municipality of Madrid (0.6%), the municipality of Valencia (0.5%) and Catalonia (0.4%).