The number of foreign nationals living in the Canary Islands has risen dramatically during the first quarter of the 21st century. The figure increased from 77,196 residents to 342,612, representing growth of 343 per cent.
In recent years, particularly since the pandemic, this demographic expansion has increasingly been driven by Italians and Colombians. At the same time, the British community has moved in the opposite direction, recording a sustained decline across the Archipelago.
Between 2021 and 2025, the United Kingdom was the only major country of origin to register a fall in its resident population in the Canary Islands. More than 3,200 British nationals disappeared from the register during this period, with the total dropping from 28,995 to 25,740, a decline of 11.23 per cent.
The British community also has a markedly older demographic profile. Almost 40 per cent of British residents are aged 65 or over, a proportion approached only by Germans, among whom roughly one in three residents is in this age group.
The contrast with other large foreign communities is striking. Only around 15 per cent of Italian residents are aged 65 or over, while the figure among Colombians is just 4.3 per cent, according to data from the Canary Islands Institute of Statistics (Istac).
As a result of these demographic shifts, the British community has fallen from second to fifth place among foreign nationalities living in the Canary Islands, behind Italians, Colombians, Venezuelans and Germans.
Between 2021 and 2025, the total population of the Canary Islands grew by 79,942 people, reaching 2,258,866 residents. Foreign nationals accounted for 53,629 of that increase, equivalent to approximately 67 per cent of the overall population growth.
Consequently, foreigners represented 15.17 per cent of the Canary Islands’ population in 2025, compared with 13.26 per cent in 2021.
Italy remains the largest community as Colombia surges
Italy continues to have the largest foreign population in the Canary Islands, with 55,553 registered residents in 2025. That represents an increase of 10.26 per cent compared with 2021.
However, the most significant growth has come from Colombia. The Colombian population has almost doubled in just four years, rising by 98.56 per cent to 32,381 residents and becoming the second-largest foreign community in the Archipelago.
Colombians have now overtaken Venezuelans, whose population has nevertheless also risen sharply. The number of Venezuelan residents increased by almost 40 per cent to 28,200, making them the third-largest foreign community.
Germany follows with 27,631 residents, around 10 per cent more than in 2021, while the United Kingdom has dropped to fifth place with 25,740 residents following its 11.23 per cent decline. Moroccans constitute the next largest group, with 20,382 residents in 2025, almost 10 per cent more than four years earlier.
Cuba has also become increasingly prominent, with its resident population rising by 22.66 per cent to 17,499. The Chinese community increased by 3.25 per cent to 10,656 residents, while the French population grew by 11.82 per cent to 7,226. Romania, by contrast, recorded a slight decline of 1.97 per cent, leaving 8,281 Romanian residents registered in the Canary Islands.
Tenerife remains the main destination for Italians
Colombians have recorded the strongest growth in registrations and are distributed relatively evenly throughout the Canary Islands. Their numbers have increased by more than 85 per cent on every island since 2021.
Italian residents, meanwhile, show a stronger preference for Tenerife. Around half of all Italians living in the Canary Islands have settled on the island, although Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura also attract substantial Italian communities.
Tenerife is similarly the main destination for Venezuelans, hosting approximately 60 per cent of the Archipelago’s Venezuelan population, as well as around half of all British residents. German residents are more geographically dispersed and have a comparatively stronger presence on islands such as La Palma and La Gomera.
The transformation is therefore not limited to the nationalities making up the Canary Islands’ foreign population. Their geographical distribution is also changing.
Traditional international tourism centres such as Adeje, Arona and San Bartolomé de Tirajana are seeing only modest relative growth, stagnation in some cases and, in municipalities such as Pájara, declining numbers of British and German residents.
Several towns in the south of Tenerife and Gran Canaria have also seen overall foreign-population growth moderated by the departure of British and German nationals.
Adeje lost 578 British residents between 2021 and 2025, while Arona lost 445 and San Miguel de Abona 307. In San Bartolomé de Tirajana, the German population fell by 60 residents and the British population by 54. Despite these declines, the south of Tenerife continues to have by far the largest absolute concentration of foreign residents in the Canary Islands, with 98,035 people.
It is followed by the metropolitan area comprising Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Telde, which has 41,348 foreign residents. Adeje remains the municipality with the highest proportion of foreign residents, at around 48 per cent of its population.
It is followed by La Oliva, Antigua, Santiago del Teide, Arona, Yaiza, Tías, San Miguel de Abona, Mogán and Valle Gran Rey, all of which have foreign populations exceeding 34 per cent of their total number of residents.
Foreign residents are increasingly moving beyond tourist areas
One of the most notable trends is the growing presence of foreign residents outside the Canary Islands’ traditional tourism centres.
Increasing numbers are settling in agricultural municipalities and towns with a predominantly local residential character, suggesting that foreign settlement is becoming more geographically diverse.
Gáldar has recorded an increase of almost 70 per cent in its foreign population since 2021. In Icod de los Vinos, the increase has been 55 per cent, while Arico has seen growth of 48 per cent and Telde 47 per cent. Santa Brígida has recorded an increase of 40 per cent, Frontera 39 per cent and Los Realejos 36 per cent.
These figures indicate that the growth of the foreign population is no longer concentrated exclusively in coastal resorts and traditional tourist municipalities, but is increasingly affecting residential areas throughout the Archipelago.
One in three Fuerteventura residents is foreign
Fuerteventura has the highest proportion of foreign residents of any island in the Canary Islands. Foreign nationals account for 31.3 per cent of the island’s population, with 40,402 registered residents. Lanzarote ranks second, with 41,020 foreign residents representing 24.58 per cent of its population.
La Gomera follows with 4,155 foreign residents, or 18.42 per cent of the total population, while El Hierro has 1,971, representing 16.43 per cent. In Tenerife, 153,696 foreign residents account for 15.90 per cent of the island’s population.
La Palma has 11,555 foreign residents, equivalent to 13.39 per cent, while Gran Canaria has the lowest proportion of the seven main islands, despite having the second-highest absolute number: 89,813 foreign residents, representing 10.26 per cent of its population.
El Hierro recorded the sharpest proportional increase in its foreign population between 2021 and 2025, rising by 41.7 per cent. This growth has been closely associated with the arrival of Venezuelan residents. La Palma recorded an increase of 26.3 per cent and La Gomera 24.3 per cent.
Gran Canaria’s foreign population rose by 23.1 per cent, while Tenerife recorded growth of 17 per cent. Fuerteventura and Lanzarote saw comparatively smaller increases of 15 per cent and 14.9 per cent respectively.
Employment is the main driver of recent immigration
The age structure of the foreign population also suggests that employment has been one of the main factors behind recent immigration to the Canary Islands. Around 75 per cent of foreign residents are aged between 15 and 64, amounting to 257,774 people.
This working-age concentration is particularly high among Moroccan and Colombian residents. Some 85.66 per cent of Moroccans and 83.78 per cent of Colombians living in the Canary Islands fall within this age group.
At the other end of the demographic spectrum, 49,038 foreign residents are aged 65 or over, representing 14.31 per cent of the total foreign population. British and German residents have by far the oldest profiles among the major foreign communities. Around 38 per cent of British residents and 32 per cent of Germans are aged 65 or over.
The islands with the highest proportions of foreign residents of retirement age are La Gomera, where they account for 23.8 per cent of the foreign population, and La Palma, where the figure stands at 21.19 per cent.
Overall, the figures reveal a profound transformation in the Canary Islands’ demographic landscape. The foreign population is not only substantially larger than it was at the beginning of the century, but is also becoming younger, more diverse in terms of nationality and increasingly spread across municipalities that traditionally attracted relatively little international migration.
