| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 535,935 born in Romania (INE 2022)[1]
627,478 Romanian citizens (INE 2022)[2] 1,079,726 (includes naturalized and second and third generation Romanians) (2022)[3] | |
| Languages | |
| Romanian, Spanish | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly: Romanian Orthodox; also: Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Romanian Britons, Romanian Italians, Romanian Germans, Romanian Australians, Romanian Americans, Romanian Canadians, Romanian French people | |
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Romanians form the second largest group of foreigners in Spain, after Moroccans.[4] As of 2022[update], there were 535,935 people born in Romania who lived in Spain.[5] Most of the immigration took place given economic reasons. The linguistic similarities between Romanian and Spanish, as well as Romanians' Latin identity, are also a reason for the country's attractiveness to Romanians.[6]
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 623,097 by 2022.[7] Because of this, the diaspora in Italy, which has continued to increase, is now considerably larger than that in Spain.
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 2,258 | — |
| 1999 | 3,147 | +39.4% |
| 2000 | 6,410 | +103.7% |
| 2001 | 31,641 | +393.6% |
| 2002 | 67,279 | +112.6% |
| 2003 | 137,347 | +104.1% |
| 2004 | 207,960 | +51.4% |
| 2005 | 317,366 | +52.6% |
| 2006 | 407,159 | +28.3% |
| 2007 | 527,019 | +29.4% |
| 2008 | 731,806 | +38.9% |
| 2009 | 798,892 | +9.2% |
| 2010 | 831,235 | +4.0% |
| 2011 | 865,707 | +4.1% |
| 2012 | 897,203 | +3.6% |
| 2013 | 870,258 | −3.0% |
| 2014 | 797,054 | −8.4% |
| 2015 | 752,268 | −5.6% |
| 2016 | 717,462 | −4.6% |
| 2017 | 687,733 | −4.1% |
| 2018 | 676,005 | −1.7% |
| 2019 | 671,985 | −0.6% |
| 2020 | 667,378 | −0.7% |
| 2021 | 644,473 | −3.4% |
| 2022 | 627,478 | −2.6% |
Romanian diaspora in Spain is today the second Romanian diaspora in the EU, after that of Italy. Romanians in Spain have settled especially in the provincesofMadrid, Castellón, Valencia, Zaragoza and Barcelona.[8]
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