Foreigners boost Balearic Island population growth over last 20 years

FOREIGNERS have boosted population growth in the Balearic Islands over the last two decades.
Figures from the National Institute of Statistics reveal that in 1999 the number of registered foreign residents on the islands was 45,017, representing just 5.4 per cent of the Balearics’ total population of 821,820. Twenty years on the number of non-Spanish inhabitants had shot up to 204,987, accounting for 17.8 per cent of the 1,149,460 people living on the islands.
In 2018 12,126 new foreign residents arrived
Nevertheless, some municipalities in Mallorca have experienced a reduction in population in recent years.
Soller stands out for a 336 drop in resident numbers since 2018, or 2.4 per cent of the population.
Also seeing inhabitant numbers decline have been Santa Mara (-110) Fornalutx (-18), Buger (down four, and Estellencs and Deia, who were each down three.
The Mallorcan municipalities with the highest percentage of non-Spanish residents are Calvia (31 per cent), and Deia (30 per cent), while Marratxi has the lowest with just five per cent of the total.