Spain tops immigrant list

Wednesday, 08 September 2010 13:04

Written by Editor

Spain has the highest number of immigrants in percentage terms in the EU, followed by the UK, Italy and France, said the Eurostat office in Brussels yesterday(Tue). There were more than 5.6 million immigrants living in Spain - 12.3% of the country’s population - as of January 1st 2009.

In total, in the 27 EU member states, there were 39.1 million immigrants - equivalent to 6.4% of the total population of those countries - almost half Spain’s percentage. Germany had 7.2 million immigrants, more in numerical terms than Spain but a lower percentage of the population at 8.8%.

Spain was followed by the UK with 4 million, Italy 3.9 million and France with 3.7 million. Of the 5.65 million immigrants in Spain, 2.27 million were from other European countries and 3.37 million were from outside the EU, according to the European Statistics Agency Eurostat.