Foreigners are leaving Spain

For the first time in four decades, Spain recorded two consecutive years of declining population. The main reason for the fall is the total amount of foreigners living in the country, but also the number of them leaving Spain.

A few years ago, Spain was a favorite destination for Europeans, but also for South-Americans (speaking the same language). However, the Iberian country was hit very hard by the financial crisis and jobs started evaporating. It was one of the main reason why immigrants started leaving Spain.

Last year almost 550,000 people left Spain and more than 10 percent of them were actually Spaniards. The statistic was released by the National Statistics Institute. According to the same statistic, last year the number of foreigners living in Spain dropped by eight percent leading to a total number of 4.6 million.

The migratory balance was shattered. About 250,000 immigrants arrived in Spain last year, while 540,000 left the country. The number of foreigners leaving Spain was 80 bigger than the one registered in 2012.

All these factors combined with the fact that Spain registered last year a negligible births minus deaths revealed a decrease in population of almost 0.5 percent. According to the National Statistics Institute, there just shy over 46 million inhabitants in Spain.