La población de nacionalidad extranjera en España: evolución y características demográficas

The growth of the population of foreign nationality, product of the acceleration of the international migratory flows of these last years, has attained in Spain remarkable high figures, placing Spain among the European countries with greatest proportions of foreigners among their residents. This way, at the beginning of 2008 the five million foreigners and 11% of the population are overcome. This growth is characterised by their unexpected intensity and the heterogeneity of nationalities represented, with an unequal impact on the territory, where the big urban areas, the touristic coastal areas and some agricultural spaces show the major presence of foreigners. In this text we propose to analyse the evolution of the migratory flows from 1996, the characteristics and demographic profiles of the main nationalities, the differential impact in the territory, to finish with the study of their repercussion in the main demographic phenomena of the whole of the population. In general it is intended to analyze the changes in the population of foreign nationality and their impact in demographic and territorial terms occurred in the last decade, in an economical stage like the current one, with one more than probable change of cycle, where we can be attending to the end of the actual period of migratory growth.