The Diplomat
The total number of people registered in the ‘Padrón Continuo’ (Census) in Spain on 1 January 2022 is 47,435,597 after increasing the number of inhabitants in the country by 50,490 (0.1%) in 2021 with respect to the previous year.
The figure represents the recovery of much of the decline recorded in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, when it lost 65,688 registered inhabitants, reports Europa Press.
According to the advance of the Continuous Register Statistics of the National Statistics Institute (INE) made public yesterday, of the total number of registered citizens, 41,923,039 have Spanish nationality (88.4%) and 5,512,558 foreign (11.6%), the highest figure since 2013. This means that, during the year 2021, the net number of Spaniards has decreased by 21,920 persons (-0.1%), while the number of foreigners has increased by 72,410 (1.3%).
Among these, according to the INE data, those belonging to the European Union (EU) grew by 13,400 (0.8%) and non-EU nationals by 59,010 persons (1.5%).
By sex, the register indicates that 49% of the total number of citizens registered in Spain are men and 51% are women, with women also being the majority among the Spanish population (51.1%), while among foreigners there are more men (50.1%).
Ageing
In terms of age, the INE indicates that the largest percentage of the population (35%) is aged between 16 and 44, followed by those aged between 45 and 64, who account for 30.1% of the registered population in Spain.
In addition, one in every five people registered in 2022 was aged 65 or over, marking the first time that this age group has reached 20% of the population registered in the census.
Similarly, the document highlights that the most marked differences in the percentage of age between Spaniards and foreigners are found in the 16 to 44 age group. Thus, 32.6% of Spaniards are in this age group, compared with 52.9% of foreigners.
In any case, the average age of the registered population in Spain continues to rise. On 1 January 2022 it stood at 44.1 years -three tenths more than the previous year- and so far this century it has increased by more than four years. Specifically, in 2022 the average age of Spaniards is 45 and that of foreigners is 37.1. Furthermore, the INE specifies that, within this group, the average age of citizens from countries belonging to the European Union is 39.6 years.
The highest average ages among the predominant nationalities are found among citizens of the United Kingdom (54.1 years), Germany (50) and France (43). On the other hand, the lowest average ages correspond to citizens of Honduras (30.4 years), Pakistan (31.1) and Morocco (32).
By communities, the population in Spain grew in nine regions in 2021 and decreased in eight. The largest increases in absolute terms were in Comunidad Valenciana (32,701 more people), Andalusia (21,748 more) and Catalonia (19,940 more). The main decreases were in Castilla y León (13,075 fewer people), Principado de Asturias (7,293 fewer), Comunidad de Madrid (6,795 fewer) and País Vasco (6,792 fewer).
Thus, the most populated on 1 January 2022 are Andalusia, Catalonia and Comunidad de Madrid, while La Rioja, Cantabria and Comunidad Foral de Navarra are the least populated.
On the other hand, in relation to the foreign population, the INE points out that the proportion of these citizens out of the total registered population in Spain stands at 11.6% and that the Balearic Islands (18.8%), Catalonia (16.2%) and the Community of Valencia (15.3%) are the leading regions among those with the highest number of foreigners on their census.
On the other hand, Extremadura (3.3%), Galicia (4.4%) and the Principality of Asturias (4.5%) have the lowest percentages of foreigners on their registers.
Even so, the register indicates that, during the year 2021, the number of foreigners increases in the majority of autonomous communities and decreases in two, as well as in Ceuta and Melilla. In this case, the autonomous communities with the greatest growth are the Valencian Community (27,039), Andalusia (25,642) and Catalonia (12,470).
