The 17.8% of residents in the city of Barcelona are foreigners. In absolute figures, this represents a total of 288,675 people, according to official figures published by the Barcelona City Council corresponding to January 2017.
The census of the Catalan capital indicates that the total population on that date was 1,625,137 inhabitants, of which 1,336,462 (82.2%) were of Spanish nationality.
Between 2008 and 2017, the number of foreign residents in Barcelona has remained relatively stable, fluctuating between 294,918 in 2009 and 262,233 in 2015. In the last two years, there has been a rebound in the foreign population, which has gone from 16.2% in 2015 to the aforementioned 17.8% last year.
The Italians are the most numerous foreign community in Barcelona, with a total of 29,272 residents. They outnumber by almost ten thousand people the second country with the most residents in Barcelona, China, which has 19,866 people living in the Catalan capital.
Pakistan is the third country with the most residents in Barcelona: 19,285 in total, only a few hundred less than those of Chinese nationality. The fourth place in this ranking is again for a European country, France, with 14,717 inhabitants, while the fifth place is occupied by Morocco, with 12,827 residents.
Already below 10,000 inhabitants are Bolivia, Colombia and Philippines, which in all three cases exceed 9,000 residents.
Of the fifteen countries with the largest number of residents in Barcelona, in the last year those that have experienced the greatest growth have been Honduras (19%), Colombia (14.2%), Russia (12.4%), Italy (8.4%), China and France (both with a 7.7% increase). In contrast, the number of resident citizens from Bolivia (-2.3%) and Ecuador (-0.6%) decreased.
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