In 2024, the Spanish economy recorded a growth rate of 3.2% according to figures from the National Statistics Institute, making it one of the most dynamic economies in the European Union, where the average growth rate of economies did not exceed 1.7%. The significance of Spain’s positive economic results prompted many foreign media outlets to spotlight this European country, analyzing the factors behind these exceptional figures at a time when many nations have experienced economic contraction in recent years.
Among the primary reasons for the economic surge witnessed in Spain is what economics professor Javier Díaz-Giménez described in a statement to the British newspaper “The Guardian” as “the mobility of people.” In addition to record-breaking tourism figures Spain welcomed over 94 million tourists in 2024 the approach adopted by Pedro Sánchez’s government, characterized by openness to immigration, stands in stark contrast to the restrictive immigration policies pursued by countries like Italy, Germany, and France. The British newspaper argued in an article, republished by Spanish media outlets such as Radio SER, that Spain’s experience comes at a time when countries across Europe face a complex dilemma. “While right-wing and far-right politicians compete for votes by expressing anti-immigrant sentiments, the proportion of workers able to contribute to pension funds is declining due to an aging population.”
In this context, the Spanish newspaper El País titled its editorial on February 18, 2025, “The New Face of Spanish Society,” emphasizing that the arrival of immigrants to Spain has offset population aging and contributed to improving the economy. The widely circulated Spanish newspaper linked the population increase due to immigration to its positive impact on economic growth indicators, the labor market, and the compensation for the high aging rates seen across all European countries. Since 2019, the labor market has lost about one million working-age individuals (aged 20 to 60), while the number of foreign residents in Spain has risen by approximately 2.1 million over the same period. Thus, “without the arrival of these new citizens, Spain would not have been able to maintain its economic dynamism or that of its labor market.”
On another note, El País highlighted the humanitarian contribution of foreign citizens. As dual nationals who are well-integrated, they share the same language and culture as Spanish citizens, enabling Spain to avoid some of the issues present in other countries. In this regard, the editorial cautioned that this new socio-professional landscape brings other challenges. The lower wages of foreign workers and their employment in low-productivity sectors affect their individual income and partly explain the sense of inflation in the real estate sector, in addition to the limited training levels of some of these new workers.
Faced with this situation, addressing population aging also requires “meeting the growing housing demand among foreign workers, improving education and training to uplift new generations, and preventing the formation of ghettos in cities, so that economic growth contributes to advancing integration,” the newspaper added.
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