Foreign contributors

The number of foreign national insurance contributors reaches a new record high at 2,792,096, after adding 6,623 in April

News - 2024.5.16

  • x: opens new window
  • Whatsapp: opens new window
  • Linkedin: opens new window
  • Send: opens new window

This is the highest level of foreign contributors in the series, after adding 6,623 in the last month and after 21 months of uninterrupted growth. Since December 2019 - before the impact of the pandemic - the system has recorded an increase of 629,697 workers from other countries.

This figure in April represents 13.2% of the total number of national insurance contributors, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Average contributors

In average terms and without seasonal adjustment, i.e. in the original series, Social Security registered 2,805,055 non-Spanish contributors, after adding 70,936 employed people in April (2.6%) and 198,372 in the last twelve months (7.6%). It is also the month with the highest number of foreign contributors in average terms, despite Easter being in March this year.

The percentage of foreign contributors out of the total number of national insurance contributors rises in the original series to 13.3%.

Of the total, 32.3% are workers from EU countries. For the first time, Morocco is the country with the highest number of workers, followed by Romania, Colombia, Italy, Venezuela and China.

Of the total, around 1.6 million are men, and the number of women exceeds 1.2 million. Notably, the number of female non-Spanish contributors has grown by 34.3% since before the pandemic, 3.1 points more than men.

69,246 Ukrainian contributors

Among the various nationalities, there are 69,246 national insurance contributors from Ukraine. This is 21,987 more than in January 2022, prior to the start of the war, representing a growth of 46.5%.

The majority of workers (85.1%) coming from Ukraine are in the General System, i.e. they are salaried workers, and 14.8% are self-employed.

Systems and sectors

Overall, 83.9% of non-Spanish national insurance contributors were in the general scheme, with 2,352,902 workers, which is 2.9% higher than in March 2024.

In the last 12 months, nine sectors have grown by more than 10%. Electricity supply (12.1%), Administrative activities (11.2%), Accommodation and food service activities (10.75%), Health

Activities (10.5%), Financial Activities (10.3%) and Trade (10.2%).

High added value activities

This year-on-year growth is also very notable in high value-added activities such as Information and Telecommunications, which increased by 8.3%, and in Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities, with an increase over the last year of 6.7%. Within these, Film activities (up over 20%), Architectural technical services (+13.7%) and Programming (+12.2%) stand out for their dynamism.

By activity, workers who are nationals of other countries account for more than 20% of the total number of members in Activities of Extra-territorial Organisations and Bodies (28.7%), Hotels and Restaurants (27.2%), Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry and Fishing (24.7%) and Construction (20.7%). In the Special Household System and the Special Agricultural System, 45.3% and 36.7%, respectively, are non-Spanish workers.

The Self-Employed Scheme registered 446,785 contributors of other nationalities, i.e. 13.3% of the total number of self-employed workers.

In the last year, foreign contributors in this regime have increased in number by 7.1%.

Non official translation