Romanians in Spain

Last updated

Romanians in Spain
Total population
609,270 Romanian citizens (2025) [1]
521,181 born in Romania (2025) [2]
Languages
Romanian, Spanish
Religion
Predominantly: Romanian Orthodox ;
also: Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
Romanian Britons, Romanian Italians, Romanian Germans, Romanian Australians, Romanian Americans, Romanian Canadians, Romanian French people

    Romanians form the second largest group of foreigners in Spain, after Moroccans. [3] As of 2025, there were 609,270 Romanian citizens [1] and 521,181 people born in Romania living in Spain. [2] Most of the immigration took place given economic reasons. The linguistic similarities between Romanian and Spanish, as well as Romanians' Romance identity, are also a reason for the country's attractiveness to Romanians. [4]

    Contents

    Background

    After the December, 1989 Romanian Revolution, emigration was liberalized, but for the next few years, emigration to Spain was modest. It started to increase slowly during the late 1990s, and exploded after 2002. Emigration was further facilitated by the entry of Romania in the EU in 2007. By 2011, it reached a peak of nearly 900,000 people, after which the Romanian population has been steadily decreasing as a result of emigration from Spain since 2012 due to the economic problems and unemployment in Spain, as well as because of Romania's rapid economic improvement, falling to 623,097 by 2022. [5] Because of this, the diaspora in Italy, which has stabilised in numbers above 1 million people, is now considerably larger than that in Spain.

    Population

    Historical population
    YearPop.±%
    1998 2,258—    
    1999 3,147+39.4%
    2000 6,410+103.7%
    2001 31,641+393.6%
    2002 67,279+112.6%
    2003 137,347+104.1%
    2004 207,960+51.4%
    2005 317,366+52.6%
    2006 407,159+28.3%
    2007 527,019+29.4%
    2008 731,806+38.9%
    2009 798,892+9.2%
    2010 831,235+4.0%
    2011 865,707+4.1%
    2012 897,203+3.6%
    2013 870,258−3.0%
    2014 797,054−8.4%
    2015 752,268−5.6%
    2016 717,462−4.6%
    2017 687,733−4.1%
    2018 676,005−1.7%
    2019 671,985−0.6%
    2020 667,378−0.7%
    2021 644,473−3.4%
    2022 627,478−2.6%
    2023 629,755+0.4%
    2024 620,463−1.5%
    2025 609,270−1.8%

    Romanian diaspora in Spain is today the second Romanian diaspora in the EU, after that of Italy. Romanians in Spain have settled especially in the provinces of Madrid, Castellón, Valencia, Zaragoza and Barcelona. [6]

    Romanian diaspora inside the EU between 2008 and 2012 2015-04-08 09.26.08 pm.png
    Romanian diaspora inside the EU between 2008 and 2012

    Notable individuals

    See also

    References

    1. 1 2 Población residente por fecha, sexo, grupo de edad y nacionalidad – 1 de enero de 2025 (in Spanish).
    2. 1 2 Población residente por fecha, sexo, grupo de edad y país de nacimiento (in Spanish).
    3. ↑ "Number of Romanians in Spain declined in 2017". 26 June 2018. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
    4. ↑ Sorin Pâslaru (30 June 2016). "De ce trebuie România să constituie Alianţa Latină împreună cu Italia şi Spania. Ce avem de făcut în NUE – Noua Uniune Europeană". Ziarul Financiar (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 3 August 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
    5. ↑ "Población extranjera por Nacionalidad, comunidades, Sexo y Año. Datos provisionales 2022". INE. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
    6. ↑ "report-spain.pdf" (PDF). December 2011. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 April 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2023.

    Sources

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