One in five foreigners in Alicante are British
Nationally Britons make up 5% of Spain’s foreign citizens
BRITONS are still the most numerous foreign nationality living in Alicante province, with 67,728 citizens making up 19.6% of non-Spanish residents and 3.65% of the total population.
In turn, Alicante is still the province with the third highest percentage of foreign residents, who make up 355,454 (19.1%) of its 1,858,683 inhabitants.
The annual study by the secretariat for migration of the diocese of Orihuela-Alicante, ASTI-Alicante, is based on the latest confirmed municipal register (padrón) data from the national statistics institute (INE), as of January 1, 2019.
Nationally Britons represent 5% of Spain’s foreign citizens with a total of 250,392, having increased by 7,555 (3.1%) on the year before.
The province is home to 50.5% of the Valencia region’s foreign population, with half of them from the EU.
The municipalities with the highest foreign populations are Alicante with 45, 941 (13.7% of the total), Torrevieja 33,207 (39.8%), Orihuela 29,904 (32.2%), Elche 24,409 (10.5%) and Benidorm 19,595 (28.5%).
They are followed by Jávea with 11,825 (42.8%), Rojales 11,656 (68.7%), Calpe 10,719 (47.2%), Alfaz del Pi 10,567 (51.6%) and Dénia 9,141 (21.7%).
This top 10 makes up 56.8% of the total foreign population of the province.
The municipalities with the highest proportion of foreign residents are Rojales (68.7%), Lliber (65.9%), Daya Vieja (63.5%), San Fulgencio (63.1%), Benitatchell (59.7&), Alcalai (55.9%), Hondón de los Frailes (52.5%), Teulada (52.4%), Alfaz (51.6%) and San Miguel de Salinas (51.2%).
Britons are followed by Moroccans (11.7%), Romanians (6.8%), Algerians (4.7%) and Russians (4.6%).
The province’s female foreign population has risen in recent years and is now almost equal to men, with the percentage of males higher for Moroccans and Algerians, but females for Russians, while 50.9% of British residents are women. While 18.8% of foreign women are of ‘fertile age’ (15-49), compared to 81.2% of Spanish women, only 7.6% of British women (6,338) are in this age bracket, and 25.2% of these are aged between 45 and 49.
The report also assesses how many residency permits have been granted, using data from the ministry for employment and social security as of December 31, 2019.
This counted a total of 363,392 residency permits in the province (up 4.2%), which is 48.2% of the regional total.
By the end of last year the number of residency permits for Britons totalled 359,471 in Spain, 97,061 in Valencia region, and 85,019 in Alicante province.