1 March 2007

MADRID - Foreigners now make up 9.3 percent of the population of Spain, latest figures published on Thursday showed.

There are now 4,144,166 foreigners among the population of 44,708,964, the National Institute of Statistics said.

The number of foreigners registered with the authorities rose to 413,556 or 11.1 percent of the total number of people who are listed with the government.

The sharpest rises in the general population were seen along the Mediterranean coast, in Madrid and in Catalonia.

In Catalonia, there were 139,491 more people, in Andalucía 125,873, in Valencia 114,459 and in Madrid 44,040.

The smallest rises were in the north, far west and in Ceuta and Melilla.

Figures showed the biggest concentration of foreigners were in the Balearic Islands (16.8pc), the Valencia area (13.9pc), Murcia (13.8pc) and Madrid (13.3pc).

By nationality, Moroccans form the largest group (563,012), followed by Ecuadorians (461,310), Romanians (407,159), the British (274,722) and the Colombians (265,141).

The fastest rising foreign populations were from Romania, Moroccans, the British (47,535), Bolivians (41,855) and Italians (20,414).

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news