Balearics population grows by over 20,000

The Balearics, in relative terms, had the highest population increase in 2018. The Canaries and the Madrid region ranked joint second with 1.39%. The rise in the Balearics is explained by there having been 1,946 natural growth (births versus deaths), 15,000-plus immigrants from outside Spain and over 3,600 from within Spain.

The national population, 46.9 million, is the highest it has ever been. The number of foreign residents in Spain grew last year by 6.3% to 4.8 million, the highest figure since 2013. Moroccans are the most populous group - 714,239 - followed by Romanians (671,233) and Britons (287,292).

The number of people who left Spain in 2018 was 309,365, the lowest figure since 2008, which was when the current series of migration statistics commenced. Twenty per cent of emigrants were British, while there 12.2% French, 10.5% Americans and 7.6% Germans.