The population of Spain at the end of last year numbered 46.5 million, down, for a variety of reasons, some 220,000 since the year before.
The country’s Institute for National Statistics reported that the trend of Spanish residents migrating abroad gathered pace during 2013, with 548,000 people leaving. While nearly 80,000 were Spanish, the remaining 468,500 were foreign nationals, including 4,588 Brits.
Departures were countered, in part, by 291,000 people from abroad setting up residence in Spain. The vast majority of these again, 258,000, were foreign nationals, among them 14,354 Brits.
About one in six Spaniards leaving the country went to the UK, making it the number one destination. Just over 8,000 left for the UK in 2013, but not there are more than 50,000 Spanish registered for national insurance in the UK, compared to 10,000 in 2008.
Of the foreign nationals in Spain, Brits form the third largest group after Romanians and Moroccans. At the end of 2013, there were 311,774, lower perhaps than might have been anticipated, but this may be related to whether the Brits have registered.
The overall number of foreign nationals dropped 7.8% to 4,676,000. Some of the drop was due to people obtaining Spanish citizenship.
