Barcelona's foreign-born population has increased sevenfold since 2000

Barcelona's foreign-born population has grown sevenfold since 2000, reaching 572,459 people. 

This is the conclusion of a council report analyzing the place of birth and nationality of the city's resident population, based on data from the council register on January 1, 2024. 

The total population of Barcelona city is 1,702,814, according to the report.  

In 2024, the number of people registered with the council who were born outside the city exceeded the number of those born in Barcelona, with the latter group making up 46.1%. 

People born in the rest of Catalonia represent 6.9%, those born elsewhere in Spain make up 13.4%, while the foreign-born population accounts for 33.6%. 

By nationality 

The study, which looked at the period between 1997 and 2024, found that the number of people of foreign nationality has grown 16-fold, from 26,600 people in 1997 to 432,556 in January 2024 (with an additional 305 individuals whose nationality is unknown). 

This trend was only interrupted during the years following the 2008 global financial crash and briefly in 2021 due to the pandemic. 

The number of people with foreign nationality registered in 2024 increased by 10.4% compared to the year before, reaching a historic high both in absolute terms – more than 430,000 – and in relative weight – 25.4% of the total population. One in four Barcelona residents therefore is of foreign nationality. 

People of 180 nationalities live in the Catalan capital. After Spanish passport holders the next largest group is Italians (50,052 people, including a significant number of people born in Argentina), followed by Colombians (28,551).