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Staff Reporter IT seems that the weather and the way of life has attracted more foreigners to live in the Balearic Islands and according to the figures from the Secretary of State for Immigration and Emigration, there has been a 3.84 percent increase in the first three months of this year.

The number of foreigners with legal residence permits in the Balearic Islands has risen to 95'565 people, which is 3'537 more people (or 3.64 percent) than at the end of 2004.

This high number of foreign residents represents 4.66 percent in the total national figures.
The number of foreign residents can be split into two groups; Community Census (reserved for people from countries within the European Union, as well as family members of Spanish residents), and General Census (reserved for people from countries outside the EU, also known as immigrants).

In this way, there are 52'529 European residents in the Balearic Islands (including Spanish family members), and 44'036 immigrants.
THE Balearic Islands are one of the four top Spanish regions with more European residents than immigrant residents, along with Andalucia, Galicia and the Canary Islands.

For those residents classified within the General Census (44'036), most have permanent residence permits (14'420, which is 32.75 percent), whilst 18.9 percent have the initial authorisation (8'333), 28.07 percent have the first renewal of their authorisation (12'359), and 17.13 percent have the second renewal of their authorisation (7'544).

As noted, the majority of foreign residents on the islands are from countries within the European Union (43'117), followed by residents from Latin American countries (24'196), Africa (19'771), Asia (4'210) and North America (565).

There are more British people with resident's cards than any other nationality (15'432), followed by Moroccans (14'457), Germans (12'866), Italians (10'692), Ecuadorians (7'164) and Colombians (5'383).

There are also a large number of Latin American legal residents on the islands, according to the statistics, which state that there are 4'453 residents from Argentina, 1'436 from Cuba, 1'136 from Peru and 1'056 from Uruguay.

In terms of Africa there are 1'311 legal residents from Nigeria and 1'318 from Senegal.
More than half of legal residents in the Balearics from Asia, are from China (2'214), followed closely by people from the Philippines (895) and India (462).

THE average age of these legal foreign residents in the Balearic Islands is 36 years, with 48'18 percent being female.
Most foreign residents are between 16 to 64 years old (76'980), whilst 11'718 are younger than 16 years and 6'867 are older than 64 years old.
According to these statistics from the Immigration and Emigration department, the Balearic Islands are in sixth place when comparing all Spanish residents, as the islands have more legal foreign residents than most other Spanish regions.

Top of this list is Cataluña with 22'96 percent of total legal foreign residents, followed by Madrid with 20'67 percent, then Andalucia (11'72 percent), Valencia (11'59 percent) and the Canary Islands (6'4 percent).