Spain has released latest citizenship statistics on foreigners acquiring citizenship in Spain.
During the year 2017, a total of 66,498 foreigners residing in Spain acquired Spanish nationality. This figure represents a decrease of 55.9% over the previous year 2016.
The most frequent nationalities of origin were
- Morocco (17,082),
- Ecuador (7,301) and
- Bolivia (6,124),
- Colombia (5647)
- Dominican Republic (4,107)
according to spanish statistics office.
About 41,180 foreigners naturalized for citizenship through residency.
By sex, 49.2% of foreigners who acquired Spanish nationality in 2017 were women and 50.8% men. By age, people between zero and nine years were the largest group in terms of acquisitions of Spanish nationality.
Madrid, Catalonia and Valencia granted the most citizenships for foreigners in Spain
Foreign expats in Spain
Moroccans topped the list of foreign nationalities living in Spain, with a total number of foreign population of 682,515 inhabitants. This figure is closely followed by Romania, whose foreign population reached 675,086 inhabitants residing in Spain in January 2018.
Other major foreign populations living in Spain were British, Italians and Chinese.