More than 7.4 million foreign nationals currently hold valid residence permits in Spain, an increase of 4.5% compared with the previous year.
These are the latest figures according to the report issued by the Permanent Immigration Observatory (OPI). As of 30 September 2025, Spain had 7,426,481 residents with up-to-date documentation.
Of this total, 54% (4,008,348 people) hold either an EU/EFTA certificate or a TIE issued under the Withdrawal Agreement. This subgroup grew by 1.5% (60,011 people) compared with September 2024. The most numerous nationalities in this category are Romanian, Italian and British, which together make up 51% of all EU/EFTA and UK nationals with valid residency documents.
Foreigners’ regime
The remaining residents fall under the foreigners’ regime, which includes all non-EU/EFTA and non-UK nationals. This group accounts for 46% of all documented foreign residents, totalling 3,418,133 people, a rise of 8.3% from the previous year.
Over the past five years, this segment has grown by 47.4%, driven above all by the activation of the Temporary Protection Directive, which enabled the issue of more than 236,000 residence permits to Ukrainian nationals. This is equivalent to over 20% of all residence permits granted between June 2020 and June 2025.
However, growth among Ukrainian residents has slowed sharply. At the end of 2022, the annual increase stood at a remarkable 180.5%, linked to displacement following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 and the implementation of temporary protection measures. By 30 September 2025, annual growth had dropped to 8.3%.
Residence permits: Demographics
Regarding demographics, EU/EFTA and Withdrawal Agreement residents have an average age of 44 and a nearly even gender split (51% men, 49% women). Some nationalities, such as British (57 years), Belgian (53), German (50) and Dutch (49) residents, show significantly higher average ages.
Meanwhile, third-country nationals under the foreigners’ regime have a younger average age of 37, with a slight male majority (53% men, 47% women).
