TWO VERY different trends are reshaping Spain’s foreign-born population, with young internationals filling major cities while coastal areas remain magnets for older expats
Spain now has more than 10 million residents who were born abroad, and new official figures show that where they live and how old they are depends heavily on geography.
According to the latest Continuous Population Statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), almost one in five people living in Spain was born outside the country.
But the age profile of those residents varies sharply between major cities and coastal provinces.
In Barcelona, just over half of all residents aged between 30 and 34 were born abroad – an astonishing statistic.
In Madrid, the figure for the same age group is around 45%.
Among those aged 25 to 39 in both provinces, foreign-born residents account for roughly four in every ten people.
These figures show how Spain’s biggest cities are attracting young international workers, entrepreneurs and students.
The pattern looks very different along the coast.
In Alicante province, 30.6% of residents aged between 55 and 64 were born outside Spain.
In the Balearic Islands, that share stands at 28.4%.
In Santa Cruz de Tenerife province, it reaches 27.9%.
This means that in some coastal areas, nearly one in three people in their late fifties and early sixties was born abroad.
But most incredibly, towns on the Costa del Sol boast a near 50-50 relationship between native and foreign-born populations in the same age bracket.
In Estepona, the figures stands at 39.50%; in Mijas it is 46.70% and – most stunningly of all – in Marbella the percentage of foreign born 55 to 64-year-olds tops out at 48.20%
By comparison, inland provinces such as Jaen, Cordoba and Badajoz record foreign-born shares of just around 4% to 5% among the same age group.
The data comes from Spain’s municipal population register, known as the padrón, which records residents’ age and country of birth.
Because registration is required for anyone living in Spain long term, it provides one of the clearest pictures available of how the population is changing.
Taken together, the figures highlight a clear expat divergence.
Barcelona and Madrid are becoming areas for younger international residents in their working years, while the costas continue to attract older foreign-born residents, including retirees and long-term expats.
Although the proportion of foreign-born residents generally falls in older age groups nationwide, coastal provinces remain far more international among over-55s than much of inland Spain.
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