Canadians Living in Spain: How Many There Are and Where They Live

How many Canadians live in Spain? 7,662 Canadian citizens were registered as residents of Spain on 1 January 2025, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE), and that is the newest count by nationality. The newest official number of all is 7,293: the Canadians who held a valid Spanish residence document on 30 June 2026 (Ministry of Inclusion, OPI).

The two figures count different things, so they never match. INE counts people of Canadian nationality on a town hall register. The ministry counts permits and cards, which leaves out students on a study stay and can keep a card on file after its holder has gone home. Both point the same way: the INE count is up 64% since 2021, and the ministry’s has nearly doubled since the end of 2021. INE’s count for 1 January 2026 is due by the end of November 2026.

This page is about the Canadians who are already here: the provinces, cities and districts they live in, how old they are, the permits they hold and what daily life looks like on a Canadian pension or salary. If you are still planning the move, the visa steps, documents and consulate appointments are in our guide to moving to Spain from Canada.

How many Canadians live in Spain: official counts from 2021 to 2026

INE’s Annual Population Census publishes two series for Canada every 1 January. One counts people with Canadian nationality. The other counts people born in Canada, whatever passport they hold now, so it is always larger: it includes Spaniards born in Canada and Canadians who have since become Spanish.

The ministry’s series runs six months closer to today. Canadians with a valid residence document numbered 3,921 at the end of 2021, 4,992 at the end of 2023, 5,978 at the end of 2024 and 6,888 at the end of 2025. On 30 June 2026 there were 7,293, which is 647 more than a year earlier, a rise of about 10% in twelve months. Source: OPI, Ministry of Inclusion, September 2026.

Why you see 7,293, 7,662 and 10,425 for the same question

• 7,662 is INE’s count of Canadian citizens registered as residents on 1 January 2025. A Canadian who is also Spanish is counted as Spanish.
• 7,293 is the Ministry of Inclusion’s count of Canadians with a valid residence document on 30 June 2026. It counts papers, not people at an address. Students on a study stay are not in it, a card can stay valid after the holder has left, and a Canadian who also holds an EU passport usually lives here as a European and is counted under that nationality.
• 10,425 counts everyone living in Spain who was born in Canada (INE, 2025), Spanish citizens included. Estimates of “around 10,000 Canadians” match this figure, not the count of Canadian citizens.
• 5,385 is a 2022 figure that still tops some searches, through an article in The Local. We could not trace it to a current INE table: INE’s census for 1 January 2022 gives 5,122. Either way it is four years out of date.
• City figures from a town hall run a little higher than INE’s for the same date. Barcelona had 1,298 Canadians on its own register on 1 January 2025 against 1,202 in INE’s census, because INE cross-checks the registers against other records before it publishes.

Where Canadians in Spain live, province by province

Barcelona province has the largest group, then Madrid and Malaga. The table sets three figures from the same census side by side: Canadian citizens, people born in Canada, and the average age of the Canadian citizens in each province. Read together, they describe two quite different communities.

Canadians in Barcelona and Madrid average about 36. On the coast the figure climbs to 49.5 in Malaga province and 47.1 in Alicante, close to retirement age. That split matches what we see in practice: the cities draw a younger group that usually needs a study, work or digital nomad route, and the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca draw people living on pensions and savings, which in Spain means the non-lucrative visa.

The second column adds another layer. Madrid has 1,954 residents born in Canada against 1,295 Canadian citizens, so roughly a third of its Canadian-born population is counted under another nationality, mostly Spaniards who grew up in Canada and dual nationals. Alicante is the one large province where the order flips, with 786 citizens and 745 born in Canada: part of its Canadian community was born elsewhere and took Canadian citizenship later.

Canadians in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia: the 2026 town hall registers

Only three Spanish cities have published their register at 1 January 2026 by nationality. Those figures are newer than INE’s but are not comparable with towns that have not published, so they appear here on their own rather than in a ranking.

How many Canadians live in Barcelona

1,304 Canadians were on Barcelona’s register on 1 January 2026, almost the same as a year earlier (1,298) and 47% more than in 2021 (889). Eixample is home to 357 of them, more than one in four. Ciutat Vella follows with 201, then Sarrià-Sant Gervasi (171), Sant Martí (164) and Gràcia (142). Source: Barcelona City Council, municipal register, May 2026.

How many Canadians live in Madrid

Madrid city had 1,008 Canadian residents on its register on 1 January 2026. The district with the most is Centro (191), followed by Salamanca (129), Chamberí (88), Hortaleza (70) and Chamartín (64). INE’s census for the city a year earlier gave 890. Source: Madrid City Council, municipal register at 1 January 2026, September 2026.

How many Canadians live in Valencia

Valencia is where the Canadian community is growing fastest. The city counted 460 Canadians on 1 January 2026, up from 344 a year earlier (33.7% more) and almost exactly twice the 231 of 2023. Over the same year Barcelona’s Canadian population barely moved. Source: Valencia City Council, statistics office, September 2026.

For every other town, the newest comparable figure is INE’s census at 1 January 2025. After the three big cities come Marbella (155) and the city of Alicante (150), then Malaga (139), Mijas (96), Seville (88) and Fuengirola (87). Palma has 83, and Sant Cugat del Vallès, just outside Barcelona, 77.

Who the Canadians living in Spain are: age and residence permits

The average Canadian citizen in Spain was 41.0 years old on 1 January 2025, younger than many people expect of a community often linked with retirement. The residence papers explain part of that. Of the 7,293 Canadians with a valid document on 30 June 2026:

• 4,945 held a permit under Spain’s general immigration rules. This is the group that includes the non-lucrative visa, the digital nomad permit, work permits and, since 20 May 2025, the permit for family members of Spanish citizens.
• 2,226 held a card under the EU free movement rules, issued to family members of EU citizens.
• 122 held a Withdrawal Agreement card as relatives of British residents.

So about two in three Canadians here hold a permit under Spain’s own immigration rules, rather than a card under the EU free movement rules. Students come on top of all three groups, because a study stay is not a residence document. Source: OPI, Ministry of Inclusion, September 2026.

Canadian expats in Spain: the cities they ask us about

Our own records show where Canadians are thinking of going, and it is not quite where they live today. In the enquiries Canadians have sent us since 2021, the cities they name most often are, in this order, Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid, Malaga, Alicante and Tenerife. These are places named in a message, not clients or confirmed moves. Source: My Spain Visa enquiry records, 2021 to 2026.

Two places are running ahead of the census. Valencia comes second in what Canadians ask us and fifth in where they live, and the town hall figures above show that gap closing fast. Tenerife is sixth for us and tenth by residents, just as Air Canada opens the first non-stop flights to the island, from Toronto on 25 October 2026 and from Montreal on 31 October 2026. Madrid goes the other way, with more Canadian residents than enquiries, which fits a city where many newcomers arrive with a job or a university place already arranged.

The first topic Canadians raise with us is the retirement visa, the non-lucrative route for living on a pension or savings, followed by moving as a couple or a family and the student visa. If you are choosing between Valencia and Barcelona, settle the visa before the city. The non-lucrative visa asks the same €2,400 a month wherever you live, and that money goes further in Valencia: a 70 m² flat advertised for long-term rent averaged €1,289 a month there in September 2026, against €2,118 in Barcelona (Source: idealista, Sep 2026).

Daily life in Spain for Canadians: pensions, tax, healthcare and time zones

How long Canadians can stay, and the visa to live here

A Canadian passport gives you 90 days in any 180 across the Schengen area, and days in France or Portugal come off the same allowance. Our 90-day rule calculator keeps the count. Most routes start with a residence visa from the Spanish consulate that covers your province, in Toronto or Montreal or at the embassy in Ottawa, filed before you travel. The digital nomad permit is the exception: it can also be requested from inside Spain while you are here legally. The non-lucrative visa asks for €2,400 a month (€28,800 a year) and allows no work at all, not even remote work. Remote workers use the digital nomad visa, at €2,850 a month counted gross, and Canadians aged 18 to 35 also have a youth mobility agreement with Spain. Our comparison of every route to Spanish residency covers the rest.

CPP and OAS for Canadians retiring in Spain

Your CPP rests on what you paid in, so it is paid to you in Spain whatever your years in Canada. OAS has a residence test. To keep receiving it while you live outside Canada, you need at least 20 years of residence in Canada after turning 18 (Source: Service Canada, Oct 2026). If you have fewer, the Spain and Canada social security agreement, in force since 1 January 1988, lets years lived in Spain count towards that minimum, while the amount is still worked out on your Canadian years. Both pensions count as income for the non-lucrative visa, and when they fall short of €2,400 a month our lawyers build the file on RRIF withdrawals or savings as well.

Taxes for Canadians living in Spain

Spend more than 183 days of a year in Spain, or keep your main economic interests here, and you become a Spanish tax resident, taxed on your worldwide income (article 9 of the Spanish income tax law). Under article XVIII of the Spain and Canada tax treaty, Spain taxes the pensions of its residents. Canada can still withhold tax at source, capped at 15% of the gross amount on periodic pension payments, and Spain then lets you deduct that Canadian tax from your Spanish bill. Our tax guide for expats explains the Spanish return, and one of our own tax advisors can plan the year you change residence.

Healthcare for Canadians in Spain

On the non-lucrative visa you need private Spanish health insurance with no co-payments and no waiting periods. After a year on the town hall register you can buy into the public system through the Convenio Especial, at €60 a month under 65 and €157 from 65. If you work in Spain and pay social security, the public system covers you from the start.

Flights home and the time difference with Canada

Toronto and Montreal have non-stop flights to Madrid and Barcelona. In summer 2026 Air Transat also flew Montreal to Valencia and to Malaga, and WestJet linked Calgary and Halifax with Barcelona. No Spanish airport we checked lists a non-stop from Vancouver, so from the west coast you connect. Source: Aena, Oct 2026.

Mainland Spain is 6 hours ahead of Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, 5 ahead of Halifax and 9 ahead of Vancouver. The Canary Islands are one hour behind the mainland. Spain and Canada change their clocks on different weekends in spring and autumn, so for a few weeks a year the gap is one hour shorter.

Canadian dollars to euros

Spain sets every visa threshold in euros, so the amount in dollars moves with the exchange rate. At the European Central Bank reference rate of 27 October 2026 (€1 = CAD 1.5636), the non-lucrative visa’s €2,400 a month comes to about CAD 3,753, and the digital nomad visa’s €2,850 to about CAD 4,456. Leave a margin when you plan: a weaker Canadian dollar raises the amount you have to show.

The Canadian community in Spain

The Canadian community is small and concentrated. In Barcelona it centres on Eixample and the old town, in Madrid on Centro and Salamanca, and outside the big cities on the Costa del Sol between Malaga and Estepona and on the Costa Blanca around Alicante. Our expat community in Spain is free and sends one email a month with meetups in your city and the news that affects residents. For a new passport, the Embassy of Canada is in Madrid, on Paseo de la Castellana; the Canadian consulate in Barcelona only gives limited emergency help (Source: Government of Canada, Oct 2026).

Once you are here, two pieces of paperwork matter most. Get on the padrón as soon as you have an address (our empadronamiento guide explains the appointment), and note the expiry date of your residence card, because a TIE renewal filed late is the easiest problem to avoid. My Spain Visa has been guiding people through Spanish immigration since 2010, with 10+ legal professionals and offices in Barcelona, Marbella and Valencia, and every case starts online.

We publish the same kind of count for Americans in Spain and British residents, and for Australians living in Spain.

Questions about Canadians in Spain

Sources

• INE, Annual Population Census (Censo Anual de Población) at 1 January 2021 to 2025: population by nationality, by country of birth and average age, provinces and municipalities (published December 2025).
• Ministry of Inclusion, Observatorio Permanente de la Inmigración: foreign nationals with a valid residence document by type, 31 December 2021 to 30 June 2026 (published 15 September 2026).
• Barcelona City Council, municipal register at 1 January 2026 by nationality and district (May 2026). Madrid City Council, municipal register at 1 January 2026, table C14130126 (September 2026). Valencia City Council, statistics office, foreign population 2026 (September 2026).
• Service Canada, Old Age Security eligibility for people living outside Canada (October 2026). Aena, airport route lists, and Air Canada and Air Transat schedule announcements (2026). idealista, long-term rental listings (September 2026). European Central Bank, euro reference rates (27 October 2026).
• My Spain Visa enquiry records, 2021 to 2026: order of the cities and topics named by Canadians who wrote to us (no counts published).