Madrid (EFE).- 32.4% of those born in Spain in 2021 had at least one parent of foreign origin, although in the vast majority there were both, according to a report from the CEU San Pablo University that reveals that they were of Hispanic American, African, European and Asian origin.
This is the report, “Immigration: a fifth of Spain today, more than a quarter of the future”, which also explains that, by province, when both parents are of foreign origin, Gerona is in first place (50, 9%); followed by Lleida and Barcelona (45%), Madrid (39%), and Valencia (31%).
In a statement on said report released this Monday, the CEU highlights that since the second half of the 1990s immigration has grown exponentially in Spain, going from 1,067,478 foreigners registered in May 1996 to some 7.5 million at the beginning from 2022; that is, more than 600%.
In addition, he describes the magnitude of the sociodemographic transformation as “historic”, both due to the magnitude and the short time in which it has occurred, and highlights that if there were no immigrants born, the average age in Spain would increase by almost two points.
According to the study, the autochthonous Spanish population is decreasing, and that of foreign origin is increasing at a good rate, a phenomenon that is especially pronounced in the large provincial capitals, with Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia leading the way.
The report details that when the origin of the mother was of foreign origin, in 42% of the cases she was American, in 28% African, in 22% European and in 7% Asian.
The decrease in the Spanish population is mainly due to the growing negative gap between births to Spanish mothers of origin -every year less- and deaths of native Spaniards, which tend to grow, whose accumulated balance in the last 10 years represents a decrease of more than 1 2 million Spaniards.
Twenty years ago, when the INE began to publish the birth rate for foreign women in Spain, their fertility has fallen appreciably, although, on average, it is still higher than that of Spanish women.
This is due to the fact that immigrants from the African continent have 2.5 to 3 times more children on average than Spanish women. In the rest of the nationalities, fertility is low or very low, and it is hardly far from the Spanish case, says the report.