Romanians in Spain

Romanians in Spain form the largest group of foreigners in the country, having surpassed Moroccans in 2007. As of 2014, they made up 15.6% of Spain's total foreign population of 4,676,022 people. Most of the immigration is for economic reasons, as many Romanians from rural and underdeveloped areas are attracted by the higher wages of Spain, the linguistic similarities between Romanian and Spanish, as well as Romanians' Latin identity are also a reason for the country's attractiveness.

After reaching nearly 900.000 people in the first decade of the 21st century, 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 730,340 people in 2014. Because of this, the diaspora in Italy, which has continued to increase, is now considerably larger than that in Spain.

Population

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
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	728,967	+38.3%
2009	796,576	+9.3%
2010	829,715	+4.2%
2011	864,278	+4.2%
2012	798,970	−7.6%
2013	769,608	−3.7%
2014	730,340	−5.1%
2015	705,333	−3.4%

See also

• Romania–Spain relations
• Romance-speaking Europe