Can we add Spain to the list of Western countries that will slide demographically in the years ahead? (I’m looking at you Germany, Italy and Japan…)

Spain is Shrinking

Marcus Roberts

• With an unbelievably bad economic outlook (isn’t youth unemployment over 60%) is it any surprise that foreigners are leaving Spain in droves to seek greener pastures? 
• With a fertility rate of around 1.4, Spain has to rely on immigration to keep its population stable (let alone growing). 
•  Luckily for Spain’s demographic future, it had been able to attract large numbers of immigrants. 
• In January 2011, there were 5.7 million foreign residents in Spain (out of population of around 47 million). 
• The largest national groups of immigrants came from Morocco, Romania, Columbia and Ecuador. 
• But with the ongoing economic malaise in Spain, the number of foreign residents has started to drop. According to the BBC, 216,000 foreign residents left Spain in 2012. 

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