Nearly half of people currently living in the Balearic Islands were not even born there, new data has revealed.
Over the past two and a half decades, a surge in immigration, combined with a declining birth rate amongst Balearic Islands residents has drastically reshaped the region’s identity, as now almost half of the archipelago’s population were not born there.
According to the latest data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) through the 2023 Population Census, 47 percent of Balearic residents were born in another autonomous community or country – including Germany, Italy, Morocco, and even as far as Colombia and Singapore.
In fact, the number of foreign residents on the islands now surpasses that of those from mainland Spain, reported the Majorca Daily Bulletin.
Combined, these non-native residents total 568,382 people – enough to form a city larger than Calma, Calvia, and Manacar combined.
The percentage of foreign-born residents is strikingly high, even in comparison to other autonomous communities in Spain. For example, Madrid, often considered to be the country’s most multicultural region, only has 44 percent foreign-born residents. In Catalonia, another popular destination for immigrants, is 37 percent.
The Balearics’ rate is 50 percent higher than the national average, which sits at 30 percent and is three times higher than regions including Extremadura and Galicia, where 85 percent of residents are locally born.
In 2000, just 35 percent of the population was born outside of the islands, highlighting just how much of a social transformation has occurred in the archipelago.
Island-specific data reveals that Fortumentera has the highest level of diversity, with only 37.6 percent of its residents – just under 4,300 of its nearly 11,400 population – born on the island. Ibiza follows closely with 38.6 percent of its 159,180 residents.
In Majorca 45 percent were born elsewhere. Of its 940,322 inhabitants, 518,210 were born on one of the four islands. In Menorca, 57 percent of its residents were born there.
The Population Census also revealed that mobility between the Balearic Islands is minimal. Only 9,076 Balearic-born residents live on a different island to where they were born – a remarkably low figure considering there are 640,509 Balearic-born citizens overall. This accounts for just 1.4 percent of the population.
The island of Majorca in particular is in the middle of a mass exodus of local workers, with removal firms struggling to keep up.
Protesters have said one of the main causes for anger is the lack of affordable property for local people, with them being bought up as holiday homes by wealthy Northern Europeans. At the same time, investors have snapped up apartments in order to rent them out to holidaymakers.
Orlando Lobo, the owner of Transportes Transatlántico removals, said demand for his services was so high that he had to add two more trucks to his fleet. He added that he had also been forced to relocate his family to Requena in the province of Valencia due to exorbitant property prices.
Mr Lobo told the Majorca Daily Bulletin: “I’ve been in Mallorca for twenty-three years. Two years ago I myself was excluded from the island’s property market and evicted.
“In the end, I bought a house with a plot of land of 254 square metres for €55,000 (£46,340) in Requena. I moved for financial reasons.
“I would never live on the island again.”
