The 10.1% of the Spanish population is foreign, according to data corresponding to January 1, 2018, offered by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) in the advance of the Municipal Register. In absolute figures, this translates into 4,719,418 inhabitants of other nationalities.
In relative terms, the highest concentration of foreign population is found in the Illes Balears, where 17.1% of its residents are of other nationalities. The autonomous city of Melilla appears in second place in this ranking with 15.6% of foreign population (although in absolute terms the figure is small). Catalunya is third with 14.2% of foreigners, while Murcia occupies the fourth position with 13.7% of its population.
The autonomous communities with a lower proportion of foreigners are Extremadura (2.9%), Galicia (3.4%) and Principado de Asturias (3.9%).
In relative terms, the most significant increases corresponded to the Foral Community of Navarre (7.2%), Basque Country (5.7%), and Galicia (5.6%).
Catalonia is the autonomous community with the largest absolute number of foreigners. In fact, it is the only one that exceeds one million resident citizens of other nationalities (1,079,712), which represents 14.2% of the total.
The next community is Madrid, with 825,001 foreigners (12.5% of its population). Third place is occupied by the Valencian Community, where 661,063 foreigners live (13.3%), and fourth is for Andalusia with its 618,791 residents from outside Spain (7.4% of its population).
NOTE: This article complements the information published in "X-ray of the foreign population in Spain (I)"