Barcelona’s Foreign Population

It has been discovered that Barcelona’s foreign population happens to be very diverse, reaching about 333,516 foreigners in the city. This is approximately one out of every five residents, where Italia ranks first to be the largest non–Spanish nationality amongst others.

All these foreigners are scattered around the 37 neighborhoods the city got, as indicated in the map below.

Light Green: Italians
Dark green: Pakistanis
Light red: Chinese
Dark red: Moroccans
Light blue: Hondurans
Dark blue: French
Yellow: Bolivians

First of all, let’s take a look over the most common nationalities in Barcelona in order to understand later where these foreigners are located around the city:

Italy

The population of Italian residents in the city of Barcelona is the highest. The number of foreigners makes up over 9% (36,276) of the entire population of Barcelona.

What is interesting here is that 20.000 of the general quantity of Italians, were actually born in Italy. The remaining number of these immigrants are people who have the double nationality and come from different countries. Mostly from Latin America, such as Peru, Ecuador, and Argentina.

China

The Chinese population in Barcelona is the second largest after Italy. As a matter of fact, over 70,000 of them have resident permits in Spain. Out of this number, it has been discovered that more than 21,658 people are living in Barcelona which is a sign that they are at home.

A typical example is a fact that there are institutions aimed at preserving Chinese culture. For example, the Confucius Institute and Casa Asia. In about 12 neighborhoods of Barcelona, the Chinese are leading others. The people from China who moved to Barcelona in 2018, were about 689.

Honduras

The city of Barcelona isn’t short of Hondurans in any way. Among Barcelona’s Foreign Population, this country gives to the city the biggest number of residents from any other country from Latin America. About 11,744 people currently living in Barcelona. There are lots of Hondurans from locations such as San Pedro Sula, El Progreso, Tegucigalpa, and others.

Pakistan

In Detail, the number of foreigners from Pakistan who are living in Barcelona is about 20,643. Curiously, although the Pakistanis aren’t that noticeable in the city on weekdays, weekends are different most especially Fridays after they are returning from the mosque. Over 50% of the population of Pakistanis in Spain are located in the city of Barcelona.

Morocco

The number of Moroccans in Spain is 16.4% of the entire population. Out of this number, around 12,872 are currently living in Barcelona. The number seems to be increasing on a yearly basis.

Peru

The number of Peruvians in Barcelona is about 9.08% of foreigners and this number will surely increase over the coming years.

France

The French are also part of the foreigners that are in Barcelona. Their presence can be traced to the fact that they once ruled Catalonia. They are about 8.17% of the foreigners’ population.

Barcelona’s Foreign Population is located in which neighbourhoods?

The district of Ciutat Vella with its four neighbourhoods (El Gòtic, El Raval, Sant Pere-Santa Caterina i la Ribera, and La Barceloneta), is the place of the city with more immigrant population than the others.

Firstly the neighbourhood which has the highest population is El Gòtic. It makes up about 56.3% of the total number of residents. Secondly El Raval is following with 25.057 foreigns, representing about 51,9% of its population, and thirdly ther is El Born. (Check HERE to check out the main attractions in El Born.)

In particular people from Pakistan, Italy, the Philippines, and Bangladesh are the most common to find in this area.

Taking a look to other districts, it is found that El Poble Sec for example has as well an important amount of inhabitants from different countries: from the 40.409 people living in this zone of the city, 13.472 (representing 33,34%), are foreign: Italians here represent a 4,04% of the population, followed by Pakistanis, Philippines, and Indians.

Althoug some other neighbourhoods such as El Besos i Maresme, Ciutat Meridiana, and La Trinitat Vella have as well a significant number of foreigners, representing the 31,7%, 31,6% and 31,0% of its total population respectively.

The least common

Contrarily, neighbourhoods like Canyelles and La Font d’en Fargues have a reduced number of immigrants, percentages among its whole population that don’t exceed the 7,5%

The diversity of nationalities brings together diversity in cultures, languages, gastronomic offer, etc. This is one of the reasons why Barcelona is an attractive destination for people who are looking for cosmopolitan and multicultural bids: history, beaches, variety, and modernity in just one place.