A new report published by Spain’s socialist government this week revealed that nearly 13 percent of all students in the country are migrants.
Spanish outlets noted on Thursday that the statistics evidence a significant 55 percent increase in Spain’s migrant student population over the past decade — reaching its highest recorded point in history.
The statistics were presented as part of the 2026 edition of “State Education System Indicators,” a broader yearly report prepared by the Spanish Education Ministry that contains up-to-date figures and information on the present state of Spain’s education system.
The Spanish newspaper El Mundo reports that, throughout its 118 pages, the 2026 report states that a total 1,125,860 migrant students were enrolled in the nation’s education system during the 2024-2025 academic period — representing 12,9 percent of all enrolled students that year.
Per the government’s report, there were only 141,916 migrant students enrolled in Spanish schools during the year 2000 — just two percent in total, between children and teenagers.
Migrant student population in Spain has steadily grown over the past two decades, having only slightly receded during the 2011 – 2012 academic year, before regaining its steady upward trend from there onwards.
During the 2015-2016 academic year, the amount had already jumped to 716,736. El Mundo pointed out that the Spanish government defines migrant students as those who do not posses Spanish citizenship, while those with dual Spanish citizenship are simply counted in the statistics as Spanish nationals.
“This trend is determined by the patterns of inbound and outbound migration flows, births in Spain to foreign nationals, and the processes for obtaining Spanish citizenship,” the Ministry reportedly stated in the report.
Referring to the “phenomenon of migratory attraction,” the Spanish Education Ministry reportedly affirmed that it is a “reality that has enriched diversity, leading to greater heterogeneity in classrooms and schools.”
Furthermore, the Spanish Ministry noted that students catalogued in the “special needs” group has gone from 5.6 percent in 2014 to 14 percent in 2024. El Mundo pointed out that the Spanish government includes migrants among these categories whether because they joined a school midway through the academic year, they speak a different native language than the one spoken in class, or because they “need to make up for other disadvantages stemming from their background.”
El Mundo explained that although migrant students from Latin America are the group that has grown the most from 2018 onwards, students of Moroccan origin still amply lead the charts, at nearly 200,000. Colombians are currently in second place, with 114,477 enrolled students, followed by Romania’s 97,633, and Venezuela’s 76,574.
The Balearic Islands, Valencia, and La Rioja are reportedly the Spain’s three autonomous communities with the largest proportion of enrolled migrant-born students. Per El Mundo, 74.7 percent of all migrant students are enrolled in public schools.
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