Spain reaches record number of Social security affiliates due to immigration regularization

Spain reached a record high of 22.6 million social security affiliates in October, driven largely by the inclusion of foreign workers through a regularization process.

The Spanish government and the Seguridad Social agency reported that 186,612 new contributors joined the system in October, the highest monthly increase for this period in the country's history. Approximately one-third of these new members are foreign nationals. Currently, non-Spanish workers account for nearly 3.7 million contributors, representing 16.4% of the total workforce.

The regularization process has added nearly 500,000 foreign workers to the social security system. Among these, Colombians make up 27.6% of the group, followed by Venezuelans at 15.7%. Most of these new affiliates are men, and the highest concentrations of these workers live in Catalunya and Madrid.

Borja Suárez, the Secretary of State for the Seguridad Social, stated that these workers filled job vacancies, helped reduce the underground economy, and provided a younger workforce to offset the upcoming retirements of the baby boom generation. While affiliation numbers rose, the number of unemployed people also increased by 43,218 in October, the largest monthly jump in six years.

Joaquín Pérez Rey, the Secretary of State for Trabajo, explained that this increase is a temporary administrative result of the regularization process. He noted that while some newly regularized foreigners joined the unemployment registry as a first step to find work, the majority successfully secured employment and joined the affiliation records.