Madrid/Oviedo (EFE).- The population of the Principality of Asturias rose by 0.07 percent in the first quarter according to estimates published this Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
For the country as a whole, the INE calculates that the resident population in Spain increased by 136,916 people in the first quarter of 2023 due to the increase in foreign citizens and raises the country’s population as of April 1, 2023 to 48,196,693 inhabitants, the maximum value of the historical series.
They are provisional data from the Continuous Population Statistics (ECP) published this Tuesday for the first time by the INE, which will provide a provisional estimate of the evolution of the population each quarter.
Statistics explains that the increase of 136,916 people represents a relative annual increase of 1.24% and estimates that population growth in annual terms is 590,184 people, the highest since 2008.
The reason for this growth, as stressed by the INE, is due to the increase in people of foreign nationality, which offset the reduction in those of Spanish nationality.
Thus, the number of foreigners increased by 149,530 people during the first quarter to a total of 6,227,092, while the population of Spanish nationality decreased by 12,614 people.
In addition, the population born abroad was 8,307,497 people, greater than that of foreign nationality (6,227,092) due to the Spanish nationalization processes.
The nationalities that arrived the most
The main nationalities of immigrants during the first quarter of 2023 were Colombian (with 44,300 arrivals), Moroccan (23,200), Venezuelan (21,500) and Peruvian (18,800).
For their part, the most numerous emigrant nationalities were Spanish (with 11,500 departures), Moroccan (8,400), Romanian (7,700) and Colombian (5,400).
The communities with the most increases
During the first quarter of 2023, it is estimated that the population grew in all the autonomous communities, except in Galicia and Extremadura and in the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla.
The greatest increases in relative terms occurred in the Community of Madrid (0.6%), the Valencian Community (0.54%) and Catalonia (0.46%), followed by Murcia and the Balearic Islands (with 0.25% in each), Navarre (0.23%) and the Canary Islands (0.21%).
In contrast, the population decreased in Melilla (0.12%), Extremadura (–0.07%), Ceuta (0.06%) and Galicia (–0.00%). EFE