Foreign affiliation to Social Security continues to grow strongly. The momentum is particularly intense in the latest data released by the Government, corresponding to the month of April, with an increase of 96,684 affiliations compared to the previous month. They are more than ever — in any month of the year — in a statistical series that starts in 2012, and which according to the Executive still does not reflect the effects of the extraordinary regularization. This figure raises the total number of foreign affiliates to 3.25 million, a new record in official records.
The April figure, with a month-on-month increase of almost 97,000 affiliations, strongly surpasses that reported in 2025 (+76,102), in 2024 (+70,936) and the one that until now held the record for the fourth month, that of 2023 (+80,795). The annual view maintains the pace of foreign job creation well above that recorded last year: 250,939 more foreign jobs are registered than in April of the previous year, while last year that increase was 192,253. Then the momentum was 6.9%, compared to 8.4% in the latest record.
In the same period, Spanish affiliation grew, in absolute terms, slightly more than that of foreigners, with 266,253 more affiliates. Since there are many more Spanish employees (18.73 million), the relative increase is much more modest (1.4%). Thus, in the last twelve months, Spanish affiliation represents 51.5% of the labor market growth, compared to 48.5% of foreigners.
The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations indicates that the extraordinary regularization of foreigners that came into effect on April 16 does not influence the month-on-month data. Although these figures go up to the last day of the fourth month, Elma Saiz’s department rules out that relationship because in two weeks hardly any files will have been resolved. It is expected that in summer it will begin to be strongly appreciated and that the foreign affiliation figure will grow well above the data reported this month.
The country that contributes the most to the April increase is Morocco, with 16,817 more affiliates, followed by Colombia (11,459), Italy (6,796), Venezuela (6,092), Peru (3,923), Senegal (3,873), Romania (3,717) and Argentina (2,813). In annual terms, those who gain the most affiliates are Colombia (45,367), Venezuela (38,601), Morocco (34,347), Peru (18,522) and Mali (11,628).
By sectors, those that contributed the most foreign affiliates in the fourth month were hospitality and the special agricultural system, in line with the seasonal dynamics of April. Bars and restaurants gained 42,451 foreign affiliates in the general regime, an increase of 9.7% in a sector where foreigners are twice the usual amount. In hospitality, they make up 30% of employment, while in the total salaried workforce they are 15%. The increase in the special agricultural system is 11,671 affiliations, a boost of 4.5%. In that activity, they are even more, 41% of employees.
In its analysis of the data, Social Security highlights that the registration of foreigners has grown by about 890,000 affiliations since April 2022, when the full validity of the labor reform began. This means that 43% of the employment created since then corresponds to this population group.
“We also see that their presence is increasingly diversified across a greater number of sectors. It is very notable that they gain more weight among entrepreneurs working in Telecommunications and Computer Programming, where they already represent 32% of the employed,” says Minister Saiz in statements provided by her department. A good part of these professionals are self-employed, an area that is growing strongly among foreigners. Self-employment among foreigners now stands at 512,653, 6.8% more than a year ago.
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