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Foreigners set to outnumber Spaniards in Costa Blanca city of Torrevieja

A growing number of Brits, Ukrainians and Russians in the Costa Blanca beach resort of Torrevieja means foreigners will soon outnumber locals, 2023 city hall data shows, the latest example of Alicante province's popularity among internationals.

Published: 5 February 2024 11:00 CET
Foreigners set to outnumber Spaniards in Costa Blanca city of Torrevieja
The number of foreign residents in Torrevieja is set to outnumber locals. Photo: Frames for your Heart / Unsplash

According to data provided by the Department of Census and Statistics at the Torrevieja City Council, the total number of foreign residents in this town in Alicante province is 49,944 compared to 50,477 Spaniards.

This means that out of the 100,421 registered on the Padrón, almost half or 49.74 percent are foreigners.

Data shows that they hail from 122 different countries, but the majority are from Ukraine, Russia and the UK.

READ ALSO: Foreigners account for almost 100% of Spain’s population increase

There are 7,650 residents from Ukraine, 5,837 from Russia and 4,912 from the United Kingdom.

Since January 2023, a total of 1,879 new Ukrainians and 905 Russians have also been registered in the city.

Behind these are Colombian residents, with 4,360 registered residents, Moroccans with 2,473, followed by Swedes (1,677), Romanians (1,604), Bulgarians (1,524), Belgians (1,474), Italians (1,246), Germans (1,159), Algerians (982), Poles (909), Chinese (830), Brazilians (803), Argentinians (777), Norwegians (667), Venezuelans (664) Finns (622), French (621), Belarusians (582), Lithuanians (559), Indians (533), Dutch (529), Cubans (447) and Irish (384).

Figures from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) are slightly different, but they only have data available from January 2022, meaning that it’s highly likely they will be much lower than the current numbers. It lists a total of 89,290 people registered in Torrevieja in 2022. Of these, 33,961 were foreigners and 49,586 were Spaniards.

READ ALSO – Beat the crowds: 10 hidden beaches and coves along Spain’s Costa Blanca

Torrevieja was also the city with the greatest relative population growth in 2022 in the whole of Spain at 6,8+ percent and the city with the greatest proportion of foreigners at 40.7 percent.

Given the high numbers of Ukrainians and Russians who moved to the city in 2023, it’s likely that these figures will indeed be similar to those from Torrevieja City Council.

Some people believe, however, that at certain times of the year, foreigners already outnumber locals because of the number of second homeowners in the area.

Many of these people spend three to six months in Torrevieja, preferring to see out the winters in a milder and warmer climate and then returning home during the hot, busy summers. Of course, these are replaced by tourists who flock here in the summer holidays.

The Costa Blanca, and particularly Alicante province, is one most popular places for foreign residents in the whole of Spain. According to INE data from 2022, it was the fourth most popular province behind Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.

Data from that same year also shows that 40 percent of homes sold to foreign buyers in Spain were located in Alicante province.

Foreigners are attracted to Torrevieja because of its excellent weather, mild winters and excellent beaches. In fact, the Alicante province as a whole has a total of 74 Blue Flag beaches recognised for their great water quality.

Torrevieja is also only a 45-minute drive from Alicante airport, making it easily accessible.

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STATS

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

Amid falling birth rates and an ageing society, foreigners are pushing the Spanish population to record highs.

Published: 10 May 2024 09:31 CEST
Spain's population inches closer to 49 million with 900 new residents a day

The Spanish population increased by almost 1000 people per day to start off the year, spurred almost entirely by the arrival of migrants.

Spain’s population increased by 82,346 people during the first quarter of 2024, a rate of a little over 900 per day on average, meaning that the total population reached 48,692,804 on April 1st, the highest figure in history.

This is according to population data recently released by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE).

In annual terms, the total estimated population growth was 459,615 people in the last year, 0.95 percent overall, a slight slowdown after six consecutive quarters with inter-annual rates above 1 percent.

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

These figures confirm the pre-existing trend that without the influx of immigrants, Spain’s population would be decreasing. This is largely due to the combination of an ageing population and declining birth rates. By 2035, around one in four (26.0 percent) of Spaniards are expected to be 65 or older. That figure is currently just 20.1 percent of the total population, and by 2050 it could rise to 30.4 percent.

This is compounded by the fact that fertility rate figures have all but flatlined in Spain. In 2023 Spain registered just 322,075 births, reflecting “a 2.0 percent fall on the previous year”, an INE statement said, with a spokesman confirming it was the lowest figure since records began in 1941.

Spain’s fertility rate is the second lowest in the European Union, with the latest figures from Eurostat showing there were 1.19 births per woman in 2021, compared with 1.13 in Malta and 1.25 in Italy.

A recent study by the Bank of Spain estimates that the country will need up to 25 million more immigrant workers by 2053 in order to combat demographic ageing and maintain the ratio of workers to pensioners in order to support the pension system.

READ ALSO:

During the first quarter of the year, the native Spanish population actually decreased by 3,338 while the foreign population increased by 85,684 people.

8,915,831 people, or 18.31 percent of the total population in Spain, were born in other countries.

The main nationalities of immigrants arriving in Spain were Colombian (39,200), Moroccan (26,000) and Venezuelan (22,600). In contrast, of those who left Spain in the first three months of the year, 10,000 were Spanish, 9,900 Moroccan and 8,000 Romanian.

On a regional level, in this period the population grew in 12 regions, as well as in the autonomous city of Melilla, and decreased in five regions and Ceuta.

The largest increases were in Madrid (+0.44 percent), Melilla (+0.40) and the Valencian Community (+0.36), while the population decreased in Aragón (-0.19 percent), Extremadura (-0.12), Castilla y León (-0.06 percent), Asturias (-0.05 percent), Cantabria (-0.03 percent) and Ceuta (0.02 percent).

With regards to year-on-year increases, population increased the most in the Valencian Community (+1.79 percent), Madrid (+1.72) and the Balearic Islands (+1.62) and only decreased in Extremadura, by 0.13 percent.

READ ALSO: Nearly half of Barcelona’s residents aged 20 to 39 are foreign

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