Total population | |
---|---|
Spain 200,000 (2018 census)[1] 200,000 people with official citizenship and an estimated figure of 37,000 people with Philippine citizenship.[2] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and other urban areas. The following numbers (from 2021 census) represent Filipinos in Spain with Philippine citizenship only.[2] | |
Community of Madrid | 16,119 (43.17%) |
Catalonia | 11,765 (31.51%) |
Andalusia | 2,857 (7.65%) |
Balearic Islands | 2,214 (5.93%) |
Canary Islands | 1,911 (5.12%) |
Languages | |
Castilian Spanish, Philippine Spanish, regional languages of Spain, English, Filipino and/or other Philippine languages | |
Religion | |
Majority Christianity (Roman Catholic) Minority Islam | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Other Spaniards and Filipino people |
Spanish people of Filipino ancestry or Filipinos in Spain are an ethnic and multilingualistic group in Spain, consisting of citizens and the descendants of early migrants from the Philippines to Spain, as well as more recent migrants. Some 200,000 Filipinos are estimated to live in Spain,[1] including 37,000 expatriates from the Philippines living in Spain who are either Spanish citizens or do not hold any citizenship.
There are many Spanish people of Filipino heritage in Spain. Filipino migration to Spain has a long history owing to the Philippines being a Spanish possession for much of its history. While Filipino migration within the Spanish Empire was recorded as early as the 16th century, the first Filipino migrants to metropolitan Spain only began arriving in the late 19th century, forming the country's first and oldest Asian immigrant community, although mass migration would not begin until after Philippine independence. Rapid growth in the community since the 1990s has led to Filipinos in Spain forming one of the largest Filipino diaspora communities in Europe.[3]
Historically one of the country's largest Hispanic and Asian minority groups, today Filipinos rank alongside the Colombians as one of the largest Hispanic groups, and one of the largest Asian minorities alongside the Chinese and Pakistanis.[4] Most Filipinos in Spain overwhelmingly live in the country's two largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, with smaller communities present in the rest of the country.