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BREXIT

Half of UK nationals who are EU residents live in Spain

Recent Eurostat residency permit data shows that Spain is still far and away the most popular destination for UK nationals settling in the EU.

Published: 5 January 2024 12:09 CET
Half of UK nationals who are EU residents live in Spain
A street full of British businesses in Benidorm. Photo: JOSE JORDAN/AFP.

Figures released by Eurostat in November 2023 have revealed that almost half of all UK nationals who legally reside in the European Union have Spain as their home.

Analysis of the stock of valid residency permits held by non-EU nationals at the end of 2022 showed a total of 858,000 Britons have the right to live in EU Member States, of which 412,000 (48 percent) reside in Spain.

Spain is by far the most desired population among British migrants, housing almost three times as many British residents as France (162,000 British residents) and more than four times that of the Netherlands (96,000).

READ ALSO: MAP: Where do Spain’s British residents live in 2023?

At the end of 2022, there were 24.0 million EU residence permits held by non-EU citizens. Germany (5.4 million permits), France (3.9 million), Italy (3.8 million) and Spain (3.6 million) between them accounted for 69.9 percent of all EU permits held third-country nationals in that time.

Of course, the requirement for non-EU residency permits is still something relatively new for Britons. Eurostat noted in its findings that “the situation for the United Kingdom was unique, related to its withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020.”

“By definition, there were no valid [non-EU] residence permits for British citizens as of the end of 2019 and only a small number at the end of 2020 when the transition period related to the United Kingdom’s withdrawal ended. Consequently, the stock of residence permits increased substantially in 2021 and 2022.”

The Spanish government has maintained for years that the green EU residency certificates Brits living in Spain obtained before Brexit continue to be valid as proof of residency to this day, and they do not have to be exchanged for official non-EU foreign residency cards called TIEs (although British and Spanish authorities do advise Brits to exchange). 

A study published last September by Spain’s Immigration Observatory revealed that more than half of UK nationals living in Spain are yet to exchange their EU green residency documents for Withdrawal Agreement TIEs following Brexit.

READ ALSO: More than 200,000 Brits in Spain haven’t exchanged residency documents

Within Spain, Britons now make up the second largest group of non-EU residents, according to data from Spain’s Migration Agency. Moroccan nationals are the largest group (844,111 at the end of 2022), followed by the British (411,875), the Chinese (240,324), and finally Colombians (191,614) and Venezuelans (186,296).

Though there is so concrete data for 2022 on where exactly new Brits settle in Spain, according to figures from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) for 2021, Málaga was the province where the British immigrant community grew most (adding 5,804 residents), followed by Alicante (+5.385), the Balearic Islands (+3,419), Murcia (+2,505) and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (+2,043), which gives us some idea of where British nationals are settling in Spain post-Brexit.

READ ALSO: How many Britons live in Spain in 2023?

Alicante, Málaga and the Balearic Islands are also the provinces with the biggest British resident populations overall. Inland areas of Spain (often referred to as España vaciada or ’empty’ Spain) have the smallest numbers of Brits. In Soria, for example, there are just 43 Britons compared to 74,500 in Alicante. In Cuenca there are 64, and in Zamora, 81.

According to immigration observatory data, as of December 31st 2022 (the latest data available) there were 412,040 Britons who are residents in Spain. The average age of the resident foreign population in Spain is almost 40 years old and there is, generally speaking, slightly more men than women.

The sociological profile of British residents in Spain, however, is slightly different and may be unsurprising to many. The average age of Brits in Spain is considerably older, at 55 years old, and much higher than other large non-European migrant groups such as Moroccans (median age of 34 years).

READ ALSO: BREXIT: How Brits in Spain can exchange a green residency document for a TIE

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SPAIN EXPLAINED

5.5 million: Record numbers of Spaniards living alone

Over five million households are now occupied by people living alone in Spain, a record high that reveals underlying demographic trends in a country renowned for being social and family-orientated.

Published: 14 May 2024 09:26 CEST
5.5 million: Record numbers of Spaniards living alone

Over 5 million out of Spain’s 48.6 million inhabitants now live alone in Spain, according to data from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE). The almost 5.5 million figure is a record high.

INE figures also revealed that over a quarter (28 percent) of the total housing stock in Spain is now occupied by single residents.

Spain has, officially speaking, over 19 million homes. The most common living arrangement in Spain is the two-person household, which accounts for 30 percent of all households in Spain. This is a number that has been steadily decreasing over many years and is a reflection of the shifting demographics in the country.

The average household size, as of January 1st 2024, is 2.49 people per property — almost identical to the EU average. This represents a stark fall over time in Spain.

In the 1990s, it was far more common for each household to have four, five or even more people living in it, and there were often inter-generational households that had parents, grandparents, and children.

READ ALSO: The real reasons why Spaniards don’t want to have children

Back then, the average household size was 3.26 people per property.

By the year 2000, however, the downward trend was already building momentum. By the beginning of the century, there were 2.86 people per household on average, according to the national average reported by the INE.

This demonstrates the changing nature of Spanish living arrangements over time, but also the shrinking size of families more broadly and several sociological trends underpinning long-term demographic change in Spain.

READ ALSO: Older and more diverse: What Spain’s population will be like in 50 years

An increasingly ageing population combined with falling birthrates mean there are more and more single people living alone in Spain.

In particular, an ageing population alongside increasing life expectancy means that older Spaniards are more likely to live alone. This disproportionately impacts Spanish women.

“We know that women’s life expectancy is longer than men’s, the chances of being widowed are higher for women,” Antonio López Gay, professor of Geography at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, told El País.

But it’s not just older people living alone. Among younger Spaniards too, more people are living alone than before. Part of this could come from changing relationship models. There seems to be a growing desire among Spaniards to have casual dating experiences without the commitment of a relationship.

A study by the University of Málaga concludes that some young people in Spain now view love as an object of ‘consumption’, so forming solid relationships that would have previously led to cohabitation becomes less likely.

There are also currently more singletons than ever – 14 million Spaniards – 52 percent of whom are men and 48 percent women, according to INE figures.

López Gay also told El País that the rise in the number of single-person households is also partly due to “inertia”, linked to population structure and changing relationship structures. “If we take a broader perspective, we see that there are more people of adult age living alone, this is due to social transformations: divorces, fewer people living with a partner…. This transition in Spain came a little later than in northern European countries, but we have already come a long way.”

READ ALSO: Spain’s population inches closer to 49 million with 900 new residents a day

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