Balearics has the highest proportion of foreign residents

PALMA
THE Balearics has the highest proportion of foreign residents in Spain, according to figures from the census of January 1, 2007, released by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) yesterday.

The report said that 18.4 per cent of the population is foreign (189'437 people), 8.5 per cent higher than the national average.
The figure is 12.9 per cent higher than 2006, when the number of foreigners on the Balearic census was 167'751, or 16.7 per cent of the total.
The INE report said that the total population of the Balearics at January 1, 2007 was 1'029'139 people, 2.8 per cent or 28'077 people more than the same date in 2006.

Although the Balearics have the highest proportion of foreign residents, they are only fifth in the actual increase in population, after Valencia (68'000 people more), Andalucia (nearly 64'000 more), Catalonia with 62'000 residents more and Madrid with 53'000 more.

The total population of Spain is now 45.12 million people, with 9.9 per cent of them (4'482'568 people) foreigners.
These figures will be provisional until the end of the year, when the INE will present the government with the official figures.
The population grew by 0.9 per cent between January 1, 2006, and 2007, although the number of Spaniards grew by only 0.1 per cent (70'000 people), and the number of foreigners by 8.17 per cent (338'000 people).

The number of non-Spanish European Union residents rose by 19.26 per cent (275'000 people).
There are more women than men (50.6 per cent compared to 49.4 per cent of the population), although this is reversed in the case of foreigners (53 per cent male compared to 47 per cent female).

In the case of foreigners, the trend of the past few years continues: the proportion of women is higher among the Latin Americans, while there are more men among the Asians and Africans.

By ages, 15.3 per cent of the entire population is under the age of 16; 44.1 per cent is aged between 16 aand 45; 40.7 per cent is over 45.
Among foreigners, 14.9 per cent are under the age of 16, 63.9 per cent are between 16 and 45 and 21.2 per cent are over 45.
By nationalities, the Moroccans are the largest group with 576'344, followed by the Romanians, with 524'995. Ecuadorians with 421'384 and the British with 314'098 residents, according to the report.

Next in line are the Colombians, Bolivians, Germans and Argentines.