Social Security registered 2,549,823 foreign affiliates in February 2023, after discounting seasonality and the calendar effect. There are 17,478 more workers than the previous month.
If we take February 2020 as a reference, before the impact of the pandemic, the system registered an increase of more than 360,000 workers from other countries, of which more than 214,000 joined in the last twelve months.
This figure represented 12.5% of all Social Security affiliates in February in seasonally adjusted terms.
Average affiliation
In average terms and without seasonal adjustment, that is, in the original series, Social Security had 2,466,243 foreign affiliates in February, of which 832,648 are from European Union countries (33.8%) and 1,633,595, from third countries (the remaining 66.2%). In total, they represent 30,684 affiliates more than the previous month. 56.1% are men (1,384,405), while 43.9% are women (1,081,838). The largest groups of foreign workers come from Romania (332,627), Morocco (308,581), Italy (159,244), Colombia (131,577) and Venezuela (125,747).
In the last twelve months, the average affiliation of workers from other countries has grown by 9.2%, that is, it has added 207,573 employed persons.
More than 60,000 Ukrainian affiliates
In addition, among other nationalities, there are 60,681 affiliates from Ukraine. They represent 13,422 more than in January 2022, when the war had not yet started.
The majority of workers from Ukraine who work in Spain, around 88.8%, are included in the General Scheme (they are salaried) and 11.1% are self-employed.
Regimes and sectors
As a whole, 83.3% of foreign affiliates are included in the General Regime and total 2,054,345. This month, the sector that registered the greatest increase is the Supply of Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning (5%), Construction (4.3%) and Agriculture, Livestock, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (3.3%). For its part, affiliation decreased in Household Activities (-0.20%), Administrative Activities (-0.52%).
For its part, the Self-Employed Regime has 407,676 foreign affiliates. Of the total foreign self-employed workers, the highest percentage of contributors comes from China (15.2%), Romania (11.1%) and Italy (8.8%).
