Basque Country and Catalonia set to have about 25% foreign‑born residents by 2041, INE projects

The Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) projects that the Basque Country (Euskadi) will see its share of foreign‑born residents rise from 15.3% today to 24.3% by 2041, increasing the absolute number from roughly 342,500 to 560,000. This demographic shift will contribute to a modest overall population growth for the region, reaching an estimated 2.3 million inhabitants.

In Catalonia, INE forecasts a more pronounced transformation: the foreign‑born share is expected to climb from about 27% now to nearly 40% in 2041, with 1.2 million immigrants added to the region’s population, taking the total to around 9.2 million. The surge will also reshape household structures, creating 3.5 million households by 2041, many of them smaller‑size units such as single‑person homes, while larger families will represent a lower share of the total.