Population Growth in Alicante: Four New Foreigners for Every Spaniard

Alicante has established itself as the fourth most populous province in Spain, thanks to the significant growth of the foreign population, which now accounts for a quarter of all residents in the area.

According to the latest data from the Continuous Population Survey (ECP) conducted by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), Alicante closed the first quarter of 2025 with a population nearing 2,040,000 people, far ahead of the fifth, Seville, with less than two million, but still behind Valencia, which holds the third position.

In the past year, the province has grown by 37,869 people, primarily due to the foreign population, which accounted for 80% of all new residents in the area. While there were 7,330 new Spaniards between the first quarter of 2024 and the current one, the foreign population increased by more than 30,500 people.

This means that in the past year, four out of every new residents in Alicante were foreigners for every Spaniard. This growth is even more pronounced when comparing just this quarter with the previous one, where the foreign population increased by 8,790, compared to just 781 Spaniards, eleven times less than the growth of non-national citizens.

Indeed, this growth in the foreign population in recent years has made Alicante the third province in terms of non-native citizens, surpassing Valencia and only behind Barcelona and Madrid.

According to INE data, there are nearly 600,000 people born abroad in Alicante, although around 501,000 of them hold non-Spanish nationality. These figures place the province as the third in Spain with the largest foreign population, surpassing Valencia by more than 55,000 people, the third province with the most residents in Spain. Foreigners now account for almost 25% of Alicante's total population.

Regarding age comparison, the population pyramid of foreigners broadens between the ages of 25 and 49, while for Spaniards, it is between 40 and 65, indicating two clear trends in the province and an ageing Spanish population.

It is noteworthy that the bulk of Alicante's population is concentrated between the ages of 40 and 64. The age groups of 45 to 49, with 167,017 people, and 50 to 54 years, with 161,731 people, are the most populous in Alicante.

However, there is concern about Alicante's population pyramid due to the increasing ageing of people, with more retirees than minors. According to these INE data, there are 429,235 people over 65 years old throughout the territory, compared to 381,371 young people under the age of 18 living in Alicante. In fact, there are more people over 80 years old than children aged between 0 and four years, highlighting the clear ageing of Alicante's population.