Number of Catalan residents born abroad increases to almost 2 million

The number of residents of Catalonia born abroad increased by more than 100,000 people in the last year, reaching a total of close to 2 million as of October 2024.  

According to the provisional data provided by the last Continuous Population Statistics published by the National Statistics Institute (INE), the total Catalan population stands at 8,099,460 inhabitants. 

The number of residents in Catalonia that were not born in Spain increased by 6% in the past year, and now stands at 24.7% of the total – almost one of every four inhabitants.  

That number has increased considerably in the past ten years, as in 2014 it stood at 15.9%, and five years ago –in July 2019- it stood at 19%. 

Since October last year, however, the total population of Catalonia has increased by only 90,000, despite 108,000 new arrivals to the territory, showing the low birth rate in Catalonia. 

47% of all people aged 30-34 in Catalonia were born abroad, while 44% of all 25-29 year olds and 35-39 year olds were too.  

Among the active population age group in Catalonia, those aged between 20 and 50, slightly more than 30% were bord outside of Spain. 

Residents with a foreign nationality, independent of where they were born, currently make up 18.6% of the Catalan population, a group which counts more than 1.5 million people for the first time.