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Living in Spain has become so easy all the pensioners just
love the lifestyle
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A recent study from the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
in the UK and the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (INE) in Spain has revealed
that the number of Brits aged 65 and over and living in Spain has increased bymore than double in the past decade.
The report from the ONS/INE showed that over 121,000 Brits
of a pensionable age are living in Spain – which is around 40% of the entire
British community of Spain.
Some 108,433 of these 121,000 Brits are believed to receive
a state pension in Spain, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.
Even though the number of British pensioners has more than
doubled since 2007, the number tends to slowly rise each year. There hasn’t
been a year that saw a sudden spike in numbers. It’s much more likely that the
reason for the increase is just a matter of ageing. Brits have been living in
Spain so long that they are reaching pensionable age.
According to the official data from the ONS/INE, there were
296,000 British citizens who had spent more than 12 months living in Spain by the end of 2016. This is more than double the 116,000 Spaniards living in the
UK between 2013 and 2015.
The official figures for the amount of Brits in Spain are
quite below the expected 1 million+ Brits actually living in Spain. The higher
estimate comes from a report from the UN in 2015 that suggests over two-thirds
of Brits are not officially registered at their local town hall in Spain.
However, even if you use the lower official figure, there are plenty more Brits living in Spain than there are in other foreign
countries. The second and third most popular countries are France and Ireland.
When it comes to Spaniards living in Britain, the data
showed 59% of them were employed in the UK, while 78% of them were working in
the education, finance, health, and hospitality industries.
