Nearly 43,000 Moroccans Obtained Spanish Nationality in 2024

Doha – Moroccans led the list of foreigners who acquired Spanish nationality in 2024, with 42,910 Moroccan citizens becoming Spanish nationals last year, according to data released Thursday by Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE).

The total number of foreigners who obtained Spanish nationality reached 252,476 in 2024, marking a 5.1% increase from the previous year and setting a record high since these statistics began in 2013.

Following Morocco, Venezuela ranked second with 35,403 people obtaining Spanish citizenship, while Colombia came third with 26,224 new Spanish nationals. Other significant countries of origin included Honduras (15,574), Ecuador (10,871), Peru (10,480), and the Dominican Republic (9,452).

Women represented 56% of all newly nationalized Spanish citizens in 2024, compared to 44% for men. The average residency period before obtaining nationality was five years.

By age groups, people between 30 and 39 years old formed the largest group of new Spanish citizens, followed by those aged 40 to 49.

The vast majority of naturalizations, 85% (215,734 cases), were granted through residency requirements. Another 14.4% obtained nationality through the option process, which typically applies to those under 20 years of age under the guardianship of a Spanish citizen or with Spanish parents born in Spain.

Spain’s two most populous regions led in granting nationality. Catalonia recorded 68,755 cases and the Community of Madrid registered 48,288, together accounting for 46.4% of all Spanish nationality acquisitions in 2024.

These were followed by the Valencian Community with 26,729 and Andalusia with 23,157 new Spanish citizens. At the other end of the spectrum, Extremadura (1,459) and La Rioja (1,729) were the autonomous communities with the lowest number of nationality acquisitions.

It’s worth noting that one in five people who acquired Spanish nationality in 2024 (19.6%) had always lived in Spain, while the remaining 80.4% had previously lived abroad. For those who immigrated to Spain, 2019 was the most common year of arrival, indicating they waited about five years to obtain Spanish citizenship.

The data comes from INE’s “Statistics on Acquisitions of Spanish Nationality by Residents” report, which has been published annually since 2015, with data available from 2013.