More than 7.4 million foreigners have residence permits in Spain, 4.5% more than a year ago, according to the latest report from the Permanent Immigration Observatory (OPI), which is part of the Secretariat of State for Migration, Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration. As of 30 September 2025, the document reveals that the number of people with valid residence documentation is 7,426,481, 4.5% more than a year earlier.
Of the total, 54% (4,008,348 people) hold an EU/EFTA (European Union/European Free Trade Association) or TIE (Foreigners’ Identity Card) under the Withdrawal Agreement, 1.5% (60,011 people) more than the data recorded in September 2024. The most representative nationalities in this group are Romanian, Italian and British, which together account for more than half (51%) of people with valid residence documentation from the EU/EFTA and the United Kingdom.
On the other hand, the report classifies people with residence permits under the foreigner regime, which includes all other nationalities. This group accounts for 46% of the total number of foreign nationals with valid documents to reside in our country as of 30 September 2025. In figures, this represents 3,418,133 people, which is 8.3% more than in the same period in 2024.
It also reveals that, in the last five years, this group has experienced cumulative growth of 47.4%, largely due to the application of the Temporary Protection Directive, which facilitated the granting of more than 236,000 residence permits to Ukrainian nationals. This figure represents more than one in five residence permits granted between June 2020 and June 2025.
Similarly, the slowdown in the growth of Ukrainian residence permits is noteworthy. As of 31 December 2022, the annual variation was 180.5%, mainly due to the displacement caused by the Russian military invasion that began on 24 February 2022 and the application of the Temporary Protection Directive. However, as of 30 September 2025, the annual variation had fallen to 8.3%.
As for the profile of foreigners with a registration certificate or TIE-Withdrawal Agreement (from Europe), they have an average age of 44 and a similar average between men (51%) and women (49%). However, there are differences in the distribution by age and gender depending on the country in question. For example, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands appear as the countries with the highest average age, with 57, 53, 50 and 49 years, respectively. In the case of the foreign population with residence permits under the foreigner regime (with nationality other than EU/EFTA or the United Kingdom), the average age is 37 years and there is a slight predominance of men (53%) over women (47%).