Australians Living in Spain: How Many, Where They Live, Pension and Tax

How many Australians live in Spain? 3,740 Australians, counting Australian citizens only, were counted as residents of Spain on 1 January 2025, according to the Annual Population Census of the National Statistics Institute (INE), the newest official count by nationality. A more recent figure from the Ministry of Inclusion shows 3,753 Australians holding a valid Spanish residence document on 30 June 2026.

The two numbers sit close together, but they do not measure the same thing. INE counts Australians living at an address here. The ministry counts permits and residence cards, so a card can stay on file after its holder has flown home, and Australians here on a student stay are left out because a study authorisation is not a residence document. An Australian who also carries a British passport, or an EU one such as an Irish or Italian passport, usually appears under that other nationality in both counts. INE’s count for 1 January 2026 is due by the end of November 2026.

This page is for Australians who already live here or are choosing where to settle: how big the community is, the provinces and city districts where it lives, and what changes in daily life, from the Age Pension and super to tax, health cover and the time difference. For the visa itself, the documents and the consulate appointment, see our guide to moving to Spain from Australia.

How many Australians live in Spain: the official counts since 2021

Both official series point the same way. INE’s census went from 2,649 Australians in 2021 to 3,740 in 2025, a rise of 41%, after a small dip in 2022 when travel had only just reopened. The ministry’s count of valid residence documents grew faster, from 2,239 at the end of 2021 to 3,753 in June 2026, and it added 384 Australians in the last twelve months alone. At the end of 2013 the same count stood at 1,417, so the community has more than doubled in a little over a decade.

The ministry also says which kind of document Australians hold. Of the 3,753 in June 2026, 2,188 Australians had a permit under the general immigration rules, the group that includes the non-lucrative visa, the digital nomad permit, work permits and the new permit for relatives of Spanish citizens in force since 20 May 2025. Another 1,420 held a residence card as the family member of an EU citizen, and 145 a Withdrawal Agreement card as the family member of a British resident. That makes more than a third of Australians with papers here (38%) people whose right to live here comes through a European partner or parent. The arrivals are also recent: 1,788 of the 3,753 documents were first-issue ones that had not yet been renewed. Source: OPI, Ministry of Inclusion, September 2026.

Why you see 3,740, 3,753, 8,276 and 9,000 Australians in Spain

• 3,740 is INE’s census of Australian citizens living in Spain on 1 January 2025. It is the figure to use when you compare provinces, and the 2026 edition comes out by the end of November 2026.
• 3,753 is the Ministry of Inclusion’s count of Australians with a valid residence document on 30 June 2026, the newest official number. It counts papers rather than people at an address.
• 8,276 is everyone living here who was born in Australia, whatever passport they hold now. It includes Spanish citizens born there, which is why it is more than twice the number of Australian nationals.
• 2,569 is INE’s census figure for 2022. Articles from that year still rank for this search, so you may meet a figure from around then.
• 5,500 or 9,000 appear on removal company blogs and in the Wikipedia list of the Australian diaspora, with no date or statistical source behind them. No Spanish or Australian statistics office publishes either one; the closest official figure is the 8,276 born in Australia.

Where Australians live in Spain, by province

Barcelona province is home to almost one Australian in four (903 of 3,740), and Madrid to one in six. The Balearic Islands come third, just ahead of Valencia and Malaga. The table puts the census count of Australian nationals next to the count of people born in Australia, from the same census and the same date, because the gap between the two columns tells its own story.

Two things stand out. Madrid has 1,715 people born in Australia but only 636 Australian nationals, so most of the Australian-born there hold another passport, very often a Spanish one. And in the north the gap is wider still: Asturias and Bizkaia each count about 240 people born in Australia and just 51 Australians. Many of them are Spanish citizens, often the children of families who lived in Australia for a time and came back. If you are looking for other Australians to share a barbecue with, the first column is the one that matters. Australians are also not a young backpacker crowd in the census: their average age was 41.2 in 2025.

INE does not publish Australians by municipality (its town table only breaks out the largest nationalities), so for cities the only official figures are the ones the town halls of Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia publish themselves. Those are newer, from 1 January 2026, and they come next.

Australians in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia: the 2026 town hall counts

Australian expats in Barcelona: 674 on the 2026 register, and the districts they choose

Barcelona’s town hall register counted 674 Australians on 1 January 2026, against 685 a year earlier and 508 in 2021. It is the only one of the three big cities where the number dipped in 2026, by 11 people, after three years of growth. Source: Barcelona City Council, municipal register, 2026.

Almost half of them live in two districts. Eixample has 186 Australians and the old town, Ciutat Vella, 144. Sant Martí, which includes Poblenou and the beaches north of the port, follows with 95, then Gràcia (72) and Sarrià-Sant Gervasi (68). Nou Barris and Sant Andreu, the districts furthest from the centre, have fewer than 20 between them. The 903 in the table above is the whole province of Barcelona, which also takes in coastal and commuter towns such as Sitges and Sant Cugat.

Australians in Madrid: 478 registered in the city

Madrid’s municipal register had 478 Australians on 1 January 2026. Centro, the district around Sol, Malasaña and Lavapiés, holds 134 of them, more than a quarter. Salamanca and Chamberí have 59 each, and Arganzuela, Chamartín and Tetuán about two dozen apiece. The town hall notes that the only official population figures are INE’s, so treat these as the newest local picture rather than a census. Source: Ayuntamiento de Madrid, municipal register at 1 January 2026, September 2026.

Australians in Valencia: 192 in 2026, up 11% in a year

Valencia city registered 192 Australians on 1 January 2026, up from 173 a year before and 116 in 2023. The province as a whole nearly doubled between 2021 and 2025 in the census, the fastest growth of any large province. Valencia is also third among the cities Australians name when they write to us. Source: Valencia City Council, statistics office, September 2026.

Australian expats in Spain: the cities and topics they ask us about

Australians who write to us name these cities most often, in this order: Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Malaga and Girona. These are places mentioned in an enquiry, not clients or confirmed moves. Source: My Spain Visa enquiry records, 2021 to 2026.

Set that list against the census and two differences show up. Girona makes the top five of enquiries while it is only seventh by residents. The Balearic Islands, third by residents, do not make the top five of enquiries at all. Our reading is that the islands draw Australians who arrive with a job or a European partner already in place, and those people rarely need help choosing a visa, while people looking at Girona and the Costa Brava are more often planning a move on savings or remote income and want the route checked first.

The topics follow a pattern of their own. The non-lucrative visa comes first, then moving as a couple or family. Third, ahead of student visas and citizenship, is the paperwork after arrival: the NIE, the TIE card and the padrón. The digital nomad visa, self-employment and work permits follow, and opening a bank account here also appears on the list. Source: My Spain Visa enquiry records, 2021 to 2026.

What our lawyers tell Australians who already live in Spain

• Register on the padrón in your first weeks. It is the register the census is built from, and the health centre, the bank and the tax office will all ask for the certificate. Our guide to empadronamiento explains the appointment.
• Diary the expiry date of your TIE the day you collect it. Renewals are where most of the post-arrival questions we get end up, and a late filing is the easiest problem to avoid. The TIE card guide covers the process, and our team files renewals inside the window the regulation allows.
• Tell Services Australia before you leave, and before you touch your super. Your Age Pension and any super withdrawal both have rules that depend on where you live. Get the Spanish tax side checked by one of our tax advisors before money moves, not after.
• Book the driving test early. Australians cannot swap their licence, because Spain has no licence exchange agreement with Australia, so once you have been resident for six months you need a Spanish licence, and that means the theory and practical tests. Our page on the Spanish driving licence sets out the steps.
• Start the citizenship clock from your first residence card. Australians need ten years of legal, continuous residence to apply for Spanish nationality (article 22 of the Civil Code), and gaps in your papers can reset it.

Australian Age Pension, super, tax and health cover in Spain

Australians retiring in Spain: keeping the Age Pension

Many Australians keep receiving the Age Pension after moving overseas, but the amount can change. For the first 26 weeks abroad the base rate usually stays the same. After that, it depends on your Australian Working Life Residence, the years you lived in Australia between age 16 and Age Pension age: with 35 years or more the rate generally stays the same, and with fewer it drops to a proportional rate, so 20 years would mean 20/35ths. Concession cards and the Energy Supplement stop when you leave, and from 20 September 2026 the Pension Supplement stops too. Source: Services Australia, July 2026.

Spain and Australia have a social security agreement, in force since 1 January 2003 (Spain-Australia Social Security Agreement). It covers the Age Pension on the Australian side and the Spanish retirement, disability and survivor pensions on the other. Its main use is for people who split a working life between the two countries: years paid into Spanish social security can count towards the minimum Australian residence needed to qualify, and Australian working-life residence can count towards a Spanish pension. Each country then pays its own share.

Superannuation when you live in Spain

You can usually draw your super once you reach your preservation age, which is 60 for anyone born after 30 June 1964, and meet a condition of release such as retiring. Moving here does not unlock it on its own. Once you are tax resident here, Spain taxes your worldwide income, and the way it treats a super payment depends on whether you take a pension stream or a lump sum. That is a decision to make with one of our tax advisors before the money is paid out, because the order of the steps can change the bill.

Tax: the 183-day rule and the Spain-Australia tax treaty

Spending more than 183 days of a calendar year in Spain normally makes you a Spanish tax resident (article 9 of the personal income tax law). The Spain-Australia double tax treaty, signed in Canberra in 1992, then decides which country taxes each kind of income. Under its article 18, pensions and annuities paid to a resident of one country are taxed only in that country, so an Australian pension paid to someone living in Spain is taxed in Spain. Pensions for government service follow a separate rule in article 19. Our guide to taxes in Spain for expats covers the rates.

Health cover: Medicare does not follow you to Spain

Australia has reciprocal health care agreements with 11 countries, and Spain is not one of them, so Medicare is no help here, not even on a visit. If you work here and pay social security, you join the public system. On a non-lucrative visa you need a private policy without co-payments to get the visa. After a year on the padrón you can usually buy into public healthcare through the convenio especial, which costs €60 a month under 65 and €157 a month from 65. Source: Services Australia, 2026; Royal Decree 576/2013.

Time difference, flights, consulates and the Australian dollar

• Calls home. Australia is always well ahead of Spain, so the easy window for family calls is your morning, which is their evening. The FAQ below gives the exact gap by season.
• Visits before residence. Until you hold a residence permit, an Australian passport gives you 90 days in any 180-day period across the Schengen area, and days in France or Italy count towards the same 90. Our 90-day rule calculator counts them for you.
• Flights. There is no non-stop flight between Australia and Spain. The usual trip has one stop, in Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Singapore, and lands in Madrid or Barcelona. Source: airline schedules, October 2026.
• Consulates. Spain’s Consulate General in Sydney covers New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory; the one in Melbourne covers Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia; the consular section of the Embassy in Canberra covers only the ACT and Queanbeyan. Honorary consuls in Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Darwin and Ayr can only handle a limited range of consular tasks. Our list of Spanish embassies and consulates has the contacts.
• The Australian dollar. Australians meet visa income tests set in euros, so the AUD you need moves with the exchange rate. At the European Central Bank’s rate of 27 October 2026 (1 euro = 1.5856 AUD), the non-lucrative visa’s €2,400 a month (€28,800 a year) works out at about AUD 3,805 a month or AUD 45,665 a year, plus about AUD 951 a month for each family member. The digital nomad visa’s €2,850 a month gross comes to about AUD 4,519.
• Under 31? The Spain-Australia Work and Holiday agreement lets Australians aged 18 to 30 live and work in Spain for up to 12 months. It is a one-off working holiday, not a route to long-term residence, so plan the next permit early. Our page on the working holiday visa for Spain has the requirements.

Which route fits you is the first thing our Spanish immigration lawyers settle with Australians who write to us: the retirement visa for pension and savings income with no work at all, the digital nomad visa for remote work for employers or clients outside Spain, which you can also request from inside Spain while your visa-free stay is valid, or a family route if your partner is European. Our comparison of every way to get residency in Spain puts them side by side.

The Australian community in Spain and other English-speaking expats

At under 4,000 people, Australians are a small community. In practice most Australians here build their circle with other English speakers. We publish the same official counts for Americans living in Spain, Brits living in Spain and Canadians living in Spain, and they tend to cluster in the same districts of Barcelona and Madrid. Our free expat community in Spain is where we announce meetups by city.

Questions Australians ask about life in Spain