Latin Americans in Spain are individuals in Spain who are from or descend from individuals from Latin America. As of January 2025, there are 4,772,270 Latin American-born people living in Spain. Flows of migration have been dependent on the economic conditions in their countries of birth and in Spain. With nearly one million individuals, Colombians in Spain constitute the largest group of Latin Americans in the country.https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=66322#_tabs-tabla
History Many Latin Americans immigrated to Spain during the country's economic boom in the late 1990s and beginning of the 2000s. Events during this period that pushed Latin Americans to immigrate included the 1998–1999 Ecuador economic crisis and the 1998–2002 Argentine great depression.
Venezuelan migration to Spain surged as a result of the country's ongoing crisis; as of 2021, Venezuelans constituted the single largest nationality applying for asylum in the country. Migration decreased in 2020 due to reduced long-distance flights during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While ten years is the usual minimum for a foreigner to acquire Spanish nationality by residency, Latin Americans – including Brazilians – can achieve it in two years.
Politics
According to Deutsche Welle, 2.5 million of 37 million registered voters in the 2023 Spanish general election were of Latin American origin, including 1.6 million resident in Spain. In that election, the parties on the right, the People's Party (PP) and Vox, created initiatives for Latin American voters, referring to family values and religion. Vox courted Evangelical Christians and anti-communists from countries such as Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Brazil. On the left, the government parties of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and Sumar preferred outreach that was not specific to Latin Americans, including measures to regularise migrants and include them in the workforce.
An analysis by ABC in 2026 found that in Spain, the majority of Cubans and Venezuelans voted for parties of the right, and the majority of Argentines, Peruvians, Ecuadorians and Dominicans for parties of the left, as well as a plurality of Colombians.
Demographics Colombian migrants in Spain are the largest group of Latin Americans in the country. As of 2024, more than a million residents in Madrid were born in Latin America. Migrants from Brazil – the sole Portuguese-speaking country in Latin America – are particularly notable in Galicia, where the native language is close to their own.
By country of birth
Per Instituto Nacional de Estadística, 1 January 2025:
978,041 692,316 468,751 450,883 430,277 252,290 220,593 207,135 193,275 189,712 162,633 93,905 91,437 87,575 82,165 40,811 21,248 9,028 8,350
See also
Colombians in Spain Ecuadorians in Spain Venezuelans in Spain Mexicans in Spain
References