Unsurprisingly, the number of foreigners living in Spain has fallen in the past twelve months, according to figures released by the INE today. These figures are both frightfully exact and, of course, utterly wrong. The first reason, because the INE is a government auditing agency, and the second, because a large number of foreigners living here neglect to inscribe themselves on the town hall registers, the padrón.
What we can tell is that, both the migrant workers and the residential tourists have fallen in numbers: because - variously - there is less work, less work paid in 'black' money, more competition in agriculture from Morocco, the scandal of 'viviendas ilegales', the World Asset Declaration and the remarkable falling pound.
Here are some figures:
The number of foreigners has fallen from 5,736,258 (January 1st 2012) to 5,520,133 one year later. Romanians remain in first position with 868,635 spread across Spain; followed by Moroccans with 787,013; Britons with 383,093 (how many are there really?) and Ecuadorians at 262,223. Other Europeans include Italians at 192,147; Germans at 181,320 and French, 117,497 citizens.
The average age of a Briton resident in Spain is 52 years old (Romanians are 31.5 and Moroccans are a youthful 28.2). There are 724,181 foreigners living in Andalucía, 859,203 in the Comunidad Valenciana and well over a million in Catalonia and just under a million in Madrid.

we just added 2 brittons to the padron

What about the Russians? I thought that they were buying property left right and centre.

I am one of the 216,125.

Yes Russians are buying but not all are living here and becoming residents.

now where have I heard that before - but it wasn't about Russians

Hard to tell how accurate these figures are though because they can only count people who register on the padrón or apply for residency. Lots of people never get round to it, for reasons of their own ... Then there are people who return to their home country without de-registering themselves here.

My area is seeing an influx of Northern Europeans looking for a rural retreat. Still no Brits though - too far from the coast? Too quiet?

my area is also seeing an influx of Northern Europeans - from the UK
all paper white, neatly pressed clothes, the summer residences are opening up, flats have the shutters up

and I was getting used to being one of the very very few English around here.

Net number of foreigners leaving Spain.

Had me stumped for a bit.

Don't think many Russians will be filling in 720

.... and I can just imagine the response that the Spanish tax authorities would get from the Russian government if they asked for info on any of their citizens assets

As per usual they'll likely go for the soft and easy targets,
YES FOLKS, THAT MEANS US !

Much the same with the EU, we are the only ones muggins enough to play by the rules, so we suffer for it, whilst everyone else merrily partakes of the p!ss.

Like most of us expats, I've been struggling with modelo 720 and a few other things recently. But, never mind the Russians, I've yet to meet a Spaniard who has filled out the form.

And I do come into contact with many of them on a regular basis.

I read today that the EU says we should take more migrants from countries within the EU with much higher unemployment, we should make it easier for them to get work in UK!!!!! Dave, get us out of this mad house, let's have a referendum.