Spain’s population drops as immigrants flee recession

PanARMENIAN.Net - Spain's official population fell last year for the first time since records began as immigrants fled a five-year on-and-off recession that has sent unemployment soaring, Reuters said.

The number of residents fell by 206,000 to 47.1 million, the National Statistics Institute said on Monday, April 22 a figure entirely accounted for by the fall in the number of registered foreign residents.

It was the first time a population drop had been recorded in official statistics since records began in 1857 - although until 1998 figures were published roughly every decade, rather than annually.

Spain and the rest of Southern Europe are suffering twin economic and fiscal crises.

During a long economic boom that ended abruptly in 2008, Spanish-speaking immigrants from Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia flocked to Spain to work in construction. Between 2000 and 2010, the immigrant population swelled from 924,000 to 5.7 million.

But building has come to a standstill since a housing bubble burst, and a government spending squeeze to try to meet strict deficit cutting targets imposed by Brussels has further strained the economy. As the unemployment rate has soared to 26 percent, many immigrants have returned home.

The biggest fall in registered foreign residents was among South Americans, especially Ecuadoreans and Colombians, the statistics agency said.

Not only are immigrants returning home; many Spaniards are also leaving to look for work abroad. The youth unemployment rate is higher than 50 percent.