40% of the jobs created between the first quarter of 2022 and the third quarter of 2024 have been filled by foreigners, according to the Social Security affiliation figures collected by Funcas, the research service of savings banks. The organization points out that in sectors such as hospitality, trade, and construction, the percentage has ranged between 45% and 60%, and in agriculture, it has reached 80%.
Funcas has chosen as the “data of the year” for 2024 that immigration has contributed to 84% of the growth of the Spanish population in the last biennium. It has gone from representing 11.6% of the total population to accounting for 13.8%, as Funcas has reported.
13.4% of the total number of affiliates to Social Security in the third quarter of 2024 were foreigners
“The data of the year” is an initiative of the savings banks' think tank where their researchers highlight annually a particularly significant data for the Spanish economy during the ending year. If in 2023 they chose to give this distinction to the 170.800 million euros that represented the spending on pensions in Spain, 15.800 million more than the previous year and the largest annual increase in history, this year they do it for the contribution of immigration to Spain.
Thus, 13.4% of the total Social Security affiliates in the third quarter of 2024 were foreigners, two percentage points higher than at the beginning of 2022.
The Active Population Survey (EPA) reveals an even greater contribution of foreigners to job growth during the period, accounting for 45%. Furthermore, they have represented 57% of the increase in the active population, meaning the addition of new labor force to the economy.
15% of the total current workforce are, according to the EPA, of foreign nationality, compared to 12.7% in the first quarter of 2022.
Since 2022, the foreign population has contributed 1.2 million to the total
Since 2022, the population has increased by 1.5 million, with the foreign population contributing 1.2 million (84%), while the Spanish population has increased by 232,000 people.
“This trend is relevant in that it has supported economic growth and job creation, especially in sectors most affected by labor shortages,” stated Funcas.
All autonomous communities have experienced a strong increase in the foreign population, which has more than compensated for the loss of Spanish population, except in Extremadura, the only community where the total population has decreased in the same period.
The influx of immigrants has been particularly pronounced in some of the regions most threatened by demographic decline, such as Asturias, Castilla y León, and Galicia. Conversely, the growth of the foreign population has been lower, generally, in territories where their presence was already high, such as the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, or Catalonia.