The latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics show that 3,880,000 of Spain’s official population of 44,390,000 million are foreigners. This is 8.7% of Spain’s population.

Statistics from the 1st January 2006 show that infact the population has risen to 44,395,300 an increase of 132,000 since the same date last year. The number of officially registered foreign residents has also risen over the same period.

Within the automomous regions the Baleares is the place where the largest numbers of foreigners live making up 15.6% of this region’s official population. Valencia, Murcia, Cataluña and Madrid follow. The regions with the smallest numbers of foreigners are Extremadura, Galicia y Asturias with only 2.5% of their official population made up of foreigner residents.

Morrocans followed by Equatorians and Rumanians are the largest foreign groups living in Spain. There are roughly the same number of male and female offically registered foreign residents.