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According to a recent study, Spain was found to be able to retain less than half of all foreigners making their way there. The average age of immigrants to the country was also found to be older than in the rest of Europe. The research suggests that liberal immigration policies alone cannot address Spain's demographic challenges, and that it might even make matters worse.

Migrants and refugees keep heading to Spain, as the southern EU member state continues to implement some of the more liberal approaches to immigration across the bloc.

However, many people who at first arrive in Spain appear to move to other parts of the continent, as a new study found out.

Titled "Los limites de la inmigracion para el ajuste demografico en Espana" (Limitations of immigration for demographic adjustment in Spain), the research project conducted by the private, non-profit think tank Funcas shows that over half of all people who came to Spain between 2022 and 2024 left the country again.

Half of all immigrants to Spain found to later leave the country

One of the authors of the report, Hector Cebolla, explains that the rate of retention of foreign arrivals in Spain has steadily fallen over the past quarter-century.

Prior to the financial crisis of 2008, Spain had managed to retain up to 88 percent of all people who moved there between 2002 and 2007. In the ensuing years, that rate dropped to around 50 percent.

The study finally found that in absolute numbers, only 7 million of the nearly 15 million foreign nationals who had moved to Spain between 2022 and 2024 had remained there; the remaining 8 million people had either returned to their country of origin or had migrated to another country.

The 106-page document explains that the main reasons for this problem were problems in the housing sector and an uncertain job market situation in Spain.

PUBLICACIÓN | 'Los límites de la inmigración para el ajuste demográfico en España' La inmigración aporta un impulso demográfico real, pero acotado en el tiempo. Los hogares inmigrantes convergen con los patrones reproductivos autóctonos en una sola generación y el freno que la… pic.twitter.com/A5sifK8XwG
— Funcas (@FUNCASES) May 12, 2026

Cebolla highlights that this phenomenon places Spain among the EU countries with the lower immigrant retention rates; Spain's rate compares to countries like Germany or Sweden, where the retention stands at around 60 percent, according to data from Eurostat.

For the most part, only EU states with low asylum application numbers have lower rates than Spain, in particular Slovenia, Poland, and Estonia.

Greece and Cyprus, as other countries with large asylum volumes, stand out as outliers with lower rates than Spain.

Average immigrant to Spain older than in rest of Europe

Another unique phenomenon affecting Spain's immigration pattern is the fact that the average age of people entering the country is also considerably older than those in the rest of Europe, the Funcas study found.

Nearly one in five (18 percent) of all immigrants to Spain were found to be aged 55 or over, with the proportion of older immigrants continuously growing.

Between 2021 and 2025, there were 615,000 more immigrants coming to Spain who were aged 55 or older, resulting in a growth rate of this migrant demographic of 42 percent.

The bracket of immigrants aged 20 to 54 witnessed a 25 percent growth in the same period.

At the same time, younger immigrants coming to Spain are particularly prone to leaving the southern European state again, says Cebolla.

Spain: Immigrants boost economy but not social systems

Spain has recently been trying to regularize over half a million undocumented migrants in the country with hopes of boosting the economy and strengthening its social security systems.

However, with an older overall demographic of immigrants coming to the country, the opposite effect might take hold, with government funds potentially running the risk of becoming stretched even thinner, as new claimants above a certain age could put extra pressure on healthcare and public pensions.

Funcas says that while nearly half of Spain's overall economic growth since 2022 can be attributed to immigrants, less than 15 percent of immigrants actually worked in a way that they could contribute to the country's social security coffers during the same period.

While many low-paid jobs may fall under the threshold for people to pay contributions, there's growing concern that foreign demographics not contributing to the welfare state may nevertheless later in life need to make use of such funds themselves.

Birth rate among immigrants almost identical to native population

The research also found that the contribution of immigrants to Spain to increasing birth rates is also nearly negligible, with most immigrants found to be assimilating to the Spanish birth rate instead.

"The reproductive behavior of immigrant women converges with that of native-born women within a single generation. In other words, Spain very quickly incorporates immigrants into its own regime of (very) low birth rates," the study says, highlighting that the birth rates of foreign nationals in Spain were found to be only one-fifth higher than those of Spaniards.

"The trend is toward convergence with the native population," Cebolla summarized, highlighting that immigrants arriving in Spain soon face the same hurdles to family life as native Spaniards do.

"Why would immigrants care less about the difficulties of having children? Why would they be immune to the problems of others when they face the same difficulties as everyone else? These are myths."

Study finds Spain needs to adjust its approach

The Funcas study came to a rather sobering conclusion: "Relying on immigration to address demographic challenges should not ignore the fact that slightly more than half of those who arrive eventually leave."

"Immigration has made it possible to postpone the moment when Spanish society will have to face the consequences of our own aging population and the decline in our birth rate, but it has not altered the underlying demographic trend," the document warns, stressing that "continuing with this strategy would require attracting ever-increasing flows.

"This is limited not only by the challenge of absorbing this diversity, but also by the fact that countries of origin are also aging and their supply of migrants will therefore decline in the medium term."

As a recommendation, the authors of the research paper say that it would be "reasonable for Spain to begin considering an adaptation strategy in response to demographic change that combines not only immigration policy, but also family policy and spatial planning."

The study also recommends that Spain should work towards attracting younger foreign workers in the coming years to combat the aging of the native population.