Romanians in Spain

Romanians in Spain form the second largest group of foreigners in the country, after Moroccans.[6] As of 2014, they made up 15.6% of Spain's total foreign population of 4,676,022 people.[7] Most of the immigration is for economic reasons. The linguistic similarities between Romanian and Spanish, as well as Romanians' Latin identity, are also a reason for the country's attractiveness.[8]

Romanians in Spain
Total population
671,985[1][2](2020)[lower-alpha 1]
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

  1. 671,985 is the size of the foreign population (thus, with no Spanish citizenship) in Spain with Romanian citizenship. 576,858 is the size of the Romanian population in Spain born in Romania.[3][4][5]

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 the country, falling to 669,434 by 2019.[9] Because of this, the diaspora in Italy, which has continued to increase, 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[10]−0.6%

Romanian diaspora in Spain is today the second Romanian diaspora in the EU, after that of Italy. In recent years, emigration to Southern Europe has started to slow down, with many Romanians now preferring Northern European countries such as Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom.[11]

Romanian diaspora inside the EU between 2008 and 2012.

Notable individuals

See also

References

Sources

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