MORE British pensioners are leaving Spain than arriving from the UK, official figures show, as the country’s UK-born population continues to shrink for the third year running.
The number of British over-65s living in Spain dwindled by around 2,500 in 2024, according to the latest available data from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), as more than 6,000 pensioners decided to emigrate.
The British-born population in Spain – the country outside the UK with the largest British-born population in Europe, according to the ONS – has been shrinking steadily since 2022, falling from nearly 300,000 that year to 282,000 in 2024.
READ MORE: British expats in Spain face inheritance tax on UK pensions from 2027, experts warn
Over-65s specifically – the largest age group by far – dropped to 109,000 in 2024 from 117,000 in 2022, an INE census has found.
It comes as an iNews investigation found extreme heat and wildfire risk were driving British expats away from their former dream homes in southern Spain.
Writing for the iPaper, 72-year-old Brit Barbara Collins said she regretted moving to Granada three years ago after extreme temperatures changed the traditional appeal of retiring in Spain.
“We crave sunshine so much and, like most people, I admit climate change never really topped my concerns,” Collins wrote.
“But this summer’s fires are frightening. What if Granada is next? What if my home burns down in flames?”
She added: “Three years ago, summers were hot, but not as hot as this. Today, it’s 40 degrees in the shade, and I am forever indebted to whoever invented air-con.”
Collins says she is now planning to move to Portugal as temperatures in Spain continue to soar and the country continues breaking records for the area lost to wildfires.
In 2025, the average temperature across the mainland reached 24.2C – an alarming 2.1C above the 1991-2020 average.
Spain’s state weather agency, AEMET, said the country experienced three heatwaves in summer 2025, with temperatures exceeding 45C in parts of southern Spain.
The heat has continued into 2026, with June this year becoming the second-hottest June ever recorded in Spain and temperatures averaging 3.2C above the long-term norm.
Meanwhile, around 220,000 hectares of farmland and forests have gone up in flames so far this year, with a 50,000-hectare blaze near Madrid becoming the largest in Spain’s recorded history.
Meanwhile, the number of British-born people moving to Spain fell by 41% between 2021 and 2024, from around 34,000 to 20,000.
Around 40% of Spain’s British-born population is now aged 65 or over, making the community significantly older than the country’s population as a whole.
The ONS, however, cautioned that the fall in the overall population could also be influenced by deaths among an ageing expat population.
Spain remains home to more British-born people than any other European country outside the UK, with established expat communities particularly prominent along the Costa del Sol, Costa Blanca and in the Balearic Islands.
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