^669,434 is the size of the population in Spain born in Romania (including those with Spanish citizenship). 865,707 is the size of the foreign population (thus, with no Spanish citizenship) in Spain with Romanian citizenship.[2][3][4]
Romanians in Spain form the second largest group of foreigners in the country, after Moroccans.[5] As of 2014[update], they made up 15.6% of Spain's total foreign population of 4,676,022 people.[6] Most of the immigration is for economic reasons. The linguistic similarities between Romanian and Spanish, as well as Romanians' Latin identity, are also a reason for the country's attractiveness.[7]
Background
After the December, 1989 Romanian Revolution, emigration was liberalized, but for the next few years, emigration to Spain was modest. It started to increase slowly during the late 1990s, and exploded after 2002. Emigration was further facilitated by the entry of Romania in the EU in 2007. By 2011, it reached a peak of nearly 900,000 people, after which 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 669,434 by 2019.[8] Because of this, the diaspora in Italy, which has continued to increase, is now considerably larger than that in Spain.
Romanian diaspora in Spain is today the second Romanian diaspora in the EU, after that of Italy. In recent years, emigration to Southern Europe has started to slow down, with many Romanians now preferring Scandinavian counties such as Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, as well as the UK, Germany, and Ireland.[10]
Romanian diaspora inside the EU between 2008 and 2012.
