The number of residence documents granted to foreigners in Spain during 2025 grew by 7.8%, according to the statistics published by the Permanent Immigration Observatory (OPI), which highlights the significant increase detected among nationals from Venezuela, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.
The report “Flow of residence documents granted to foreign individuals during 2025” states that the total number of authorizations granted amounts to 1,577,842, representing an increase of 7.8% (114,238 documents) compared to the previous year. This statistic accounts for all residence documents granted in the year, including initial grants, renewals, modifications, extensions, and recoveries.
It is important to highlight that the total number of documents is not comparable to the total number of individuals who have been granted a residence document, since the same person may have obtained, for example, an initial permit and subsequently a renewal, which equates to the same person with two documents granted throughout the same year.
The Observatory highlights as relevant data the growth of documents granted to nationals of the United Kingdom, which increased from 26,325 to 57,396 due to the modifications of temporary documentation to permanent for Foreign Identity Cards (TIE) after more than 5 years since the implementation of this type of documentation.
Also noteworthy, with a 19.5% positive variation, are the residence documents granted to nationals of Venezuela, and the residence documents to Ukrainian citizens through temporary protection in 2025.
Individuals from three nationalities, Ukraine (244,579 documents), Venezuela (224,341), and Morocco (187,790), received 42% of the residence documents issued in 2025.
Regarding the autonomous communities where the residence documents issued during 2025 have been requested, Catalonia and the Valencian Community stand out, with 311,038 and 282,897 grants respectively. They are followed in number by the Community of Madrid with 275,607 and Andalusia with 232,201. These four autonomous communities have concentrated 70% of the residence documents issued during 2025.
82% of the residence documents granted are authorizations under immigration law and 92% of them are for temporary residence.
The average age of individuals who obtained a study stay authorization in 2025 is 27 years, and 54% (57,977) of the authorizations correspond to women.
On the other hand, the most frequent nationalities of individuals who were granted this type of authorization in 2025 are Colombian (14,784, 14% of the total), Peruvian (10,270, 9%), Moroccan (8,885, 8%), American (7,986, 7%), and Chinese (7,771, 7%).
