Spain: Population decrease by 0.9% because of the... crisis!

On January 1, 2014 in the registers of the municipalities were 46,725,164 inhabitants, 404,619 (-0.9%) less compared to the previous year, according to preliminary data collected by the National Statistics Institute (Ine). The number of Hispanics increased slightly (+0.3%) to 41.7 million, but the number of foreigners decreased by 9.8% to five million, 10.7% of the total population. Romanians, who form the largest community of European residents in Spain, fell by 8.5% to 795,000, but those who left the country team were mainly Germans (23.6%), British (-22.8%) and Portuguese (-15.3%).

Many nationals of Latin America also left, as Colombians (-18.6%) and Peruvians (-18.3%). In contrast, last year the number of Chinese who settled in Spain increased by 2% to 185,250. The fourth-largest eurozone economy, which attracted a large immigration wave during the economic boom, was hit in 2008 from the international crisis and the domestic property bubble. Unemployment in the country reached 26.03% and due to the austerity measures taken by the conservative government many benefits were significantly reduced or eliminated.