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The Migration Statistics aims to carry out a statistical approximation of the number of immigrations from overseas, emigrations overseas, migrations between Autonomous Communities and migrations between Provinces, broken down by sex, year of birth, age, citizenship and country of origin of the migrant and the origin and destination of the migration.
Lists of Autonomous Communities, Provinces and countries of citizenship and birth are used in accordance with INE standards.
Migratory movements that affect the population residing in Spain.
Migration.
All migratory movements (changes in usual residence) occurring during the reference period from Spain to overseas and vice versa, which include foreign migration and domestic migration, comprising migration between Spanish regions (Provinces or Autonomous Communities).
The statistic covers the entire national territory, and is disseminated for the national total, for each one of the Autonomous Communities and Cities, and for the Provinces.
Since 2008.
2008.
Number of emigrations of residents in Spain to overseas.
Number of immigrations from people who are residents overseas.
Number of migrations between Provinces/Autonomous Communities of residents in Spain.
Calendar year and semester.
Data referred to the period: SEMESTRAL 2021
The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. The National Statistical Plan 2009-2012 was approved by the Royal Decree 1663/2008. It contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15 December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024. (Statistics of the State Administration).
Regulation 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics on migration and international protection.The Spanish version of this European Union law is accessible at www.ine.es/normativa/leyes/UE/minine.htm#30277
The results of the Migration Statistics are broadcast on an international level as Spain's official figures on migrations for all purposes.
The Statistical Law No. 12/1989 specifies that the INE cannot publish, or make otherwise available, individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society
No additional confidentiality measures have been adopted in addition to those already indicated as regularly used for all INE operations.
The advance release calendar that shows the precise release dates for the coming year is disseminated in the last quarter of each year.
The calendar is disseminated on the INEs Internet website (Publications Calendar)
The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website (www.ine.es/en) almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in the European Statistics Code of Practice
Biannual.
The results of the statistical operations are normally disseminated by using press releases that can be accessed via both the corresponding menu and the Press Releases Section in the web
No specific publications are made. All information relating to the Migration Statistics is published on the INE website in the Demographic phenomena section of the Demography and population section, at:
INEbase is the system the INE uses to store statistical information on the Internet. It contains all the information the INE produces in electronic formats. The primary organisation of the information follows the theme-based classification of the Inventory of Statistical Operations of the State General Administration . The basic unit of INEbase is the statistical operation, defined as the set of activities that lead to obtaining statistical results on a determined sector or subject based on the individually collected data. Also included in the scope of this definition are synthesis preparation.
Tables with aggregated results are available at:
Not available.
This operation allows for users' tailored requests for information not included in the results tables to be fulfilled, following a viability study, in all cases, by INE.
Requests can be made through the Information Area:
The operation's methodology can be accessed at:
Sections 10.6 to 17.2 of this document are considered to the user-oriented quality report for this operation.
Quality assurance framework for the INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 16 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.
The Migration Statistics is prepared from the statistical processing of changes registered in the Municipal Register. The quality of its results depends on the coverage of this regarding the residential changes of the population and on the appropriate statistical processing applied to the aforementioned administrative information.
Firstly, a check of the Municipal Register is carried out, so that all the information used is coherent:
Nonetheless, the quality of the Municipal Register is very high, and increasingly so.
In any case, its results maintain total consistency with those provided by the Population Figures and by the Vital Statistics and Statistics on Acquisition of Spanish Citizenship of Residents released by INE. There is also total coherence between all territorial levels.
Complete consistency is guaranteed between the data and those provided by the Population Figures, as well as with the figures on births, deaths and acquisition of Spanish citizenship provided by the Vital Statistics and the Statistics on Acquisition of Spanish Citizenship of Residents respectively from 2012.
The weakest point of this statistic is the lack of records, in the Municipal Register, of emigrations overseas. This shortcoming is supplemented using expiration processes for foreigners implemented over the last few years by the Municipal Register, although information is provided with a certain time lag.
These data conform to official data on Spanish migrations. The first user of these is the national statistical system itself, in particular they are used by INE as a basic resource for the preparation of the Population Figures for those resident in Spain, in each Autonomous Community and in each Province. They are also available to all users who need to analyse the demographic evolution of the country or use them, in turn, in the production or analysis of other statistical information. Furthermore, these figures are used by international bodies as Spanish migration data for all purposes.
There is no information available at the municipal level: the only available statistical information on changes of residence between municipalities is the quantification of increases and decreases in the respective Municipal Registers provided by the Residential Variation Statistics, also prepared by the INE.
The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...
On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date.(Click next link)
This operation provides all the information required by Regulation 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistics on migration and international protection in relation to the figures on migrations between Spain and the rest of the world.
The rate of available mandatory data is, therefore, 100% (R1=100%)..
There are no available measures of accuracy of the results of this operation.
The main source of error comes from a lack of records, in the Municipal Register, of emigrations overseas. This shortcoming is supplemented using expiration processes for foreigners implemented over the last few years by the Municipal Register, although information is provided with a certain time lag.
Being the Migration Statistics based on administrative sources, they are not affected by sampling errors. Non-sampling errors may come from both the sources and the information treatment in this operation (lack of coverage, measurement errors). The direct measurement of accuracy in this case is not considered possible. The main instrument for analyzing the accuracy is the analysis of the revisions. The revisions show the degree of proximity between subsequent estimators of the same value, and it is reasonable to assume that the estimators converge on the true value when they are based on better and more reliable data. (See 17.2)
Not applicable to this statistical operation as this is a synthetic statistic, prepared using other sources, and not a sample survey.
As this is a synthetic operation, based on the statistical processing of data from register sources (see section 18.1), non-sampling errors for this statistical operation are mainly due to:
- Possible register errors that are attempted to be corrected through a filtering process.
- Possible lack of completion of variables, for which an automatic imputation process is carried out. That is, the non-response rate per item (A5) is the same as the imputation rate (A7). For example, for 2019 provisional data of external immigration:
A5(citizenship) = A7(citizenship) = 0%
A5(country of birth) = A7(country of birth) = 0.01%
- Possible lack of information when estimating delays in registration, which is supplemented by estimation mechanisms.
These results are released biannually; provisional results are released six months after the reference date of these (TP1=6 months) and definitive data are released 12 months after the reference date (TP2= 12 months).
This operation is released within the time established in INE's structural statistics calendar (TP3=0; it is disseminated with no delay).
The results are completely consistent between territories, at all levels of disaggregation. Furthermore, they are calculated based on the definitions established in Regulation 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistics of migration and international protection and supported, in turn, by the United Nations, which boosts its international comparability.
Data are provided from 2008 in accordance with a homogeneous methodology and, therefore, are completely comparable over time.
The annual series of results, therefore, comprises 14 comparable elements, and the biannual series comprises 28 comparable elements. That is:
The Migration Statistics is formed according to concepts and definitions established by Eurostat in Regulation 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistics on migration and international protection, which boosts its international comparability.
These results are used as a basic resource in the calculation of the Population Figures, as their results are completely consistent with these and with the results of the Vital Statistics on births and deaths, as well as with the Acquisition of Spanish Citizenship of Residents.
Another source that provides information on changes in residence of the Spanish population are the Residential Variation Statistics, also prepared by the INE, which consists of the exploitation of register changes made in the Municipal Register of Inhabitants. While this is the only source of data that deals with the concept of migrations until 2007, from 2008 it has coexisted with the Migration Statistics, which carries out statistical processing of the aforementioned register changes to adapt to the concepts imposed by the Regulation, and from there, the differences between the two.
The data are completely demographically consistent and consistent between territories.
This is a synthetic statistic, prepared using administrative sources. For this reason, collaboration with respondent units is not required, and there are no data collection costs.
The estimated budgetary appropriation required to finance this statistic, as provided for in the 2022 Annual Programme of the 2021-2024 National Statistics Plan, is 117.86 thousand Euros.
The INE of Spain has a policy which regulates the basic aspects of statistical data revision, seeking to ensure process transparency and product quality. This policy is laid out in the document approved by the INE board of directors on 13 March of 2015, which is available on the INE website, in the section "Methods and projects/Quality and Code of Practice/INE’s Quality management/INE’s Revision policy" (link).
This general policy sets the criteria that the different type of revisions should follow: routine revision- it is the case of statistics whose production process includes regular revisions-; more extensive revision- when methodological or basic reference source changes take place-; and exceptional revision- for instance, when an error appears in a published statistic-.
Reviews adhere to the availability of new data for the reference period. The definitive data, released 12 months after the end of the reference period, involves a review of the provisional results released 6 months after the reference period.
This operation's provisional data, released six months after the reference period of the data, are reviewed with the corresponding definitive data from the 12 months following the reference period. The most relevant indicators are the following, and have been obtained from the semesters since the first of 2012 to the second of 2020:
In principle, the Migration Statistics is prepared through the statistical processing of the variations registered in the database of the Municipal Register.
However, the observation of changes in the Municipal Register could be insufficient in measuring migratory flows. Thus, this operation was created with the aim of incorporating as many additional sources of information and methodological improvements as deemed appropriate into its calculation methodology to enable improved identification and measurement of the migratory phenomenon. These methodological improvements will be incorporated during the forthcoming editions and will be documented to inform researchers and users.
Biannual.
Data prepared through the statistical processing of changes registered in the database of the Municipal Register. The aforementioned database is updated monthly by the INE based on the information received from each of the City Councils of Spain in relation to the latest changes registered in the respective municipal registers, which allows for the centralised management of these.
Multiple analyses are carried out on the coherence of the evolution of migration figures and of these with data from different demographic statistical sources.
Initially, the Migration Statistics is prepared using the residential changes registered in the database of the Municipal Register. Statistical processing is carried out on movements registered in the registers, based on:
- Selection of register movements compatible with overseas or domestic migration in the period considered.
- Adjustment to the statistical definition of migration through the filtering of consecutive migratory movements of a single individual that are less than twelve months apart, from the individual link of consecutive deregistration and registration movements in the Municipal Register's database.
- Imputation of the country of birth, country of citizenship and country of origin or destination (this last variable is only applicable to overseas migrations) of previous migratory flows that are blank or have invalid values for these variables, being based on the registers of the country of birth, citizenship and country of origin (overseas immigration) or destination (overseas emigration) that are properly completed.
- Final adjustment on international migration data, consisting of eliminating those foreign emigrations by population groups that do not appear as residents in Spain, according to the Population Figures, resident in the country at the beginning of each period, or adding the corresponding foreign immigrations if this was not possible, to guarantee total consistency between demographic flows and population stocks.
- Calculation of the year of arrival in Spain for those people who emigrate, beginning the series in external emigration of the year 2018. This estimation is based on the history of movements in the Population Register for each person.
- Calculation of the level of education, relationship with economic activity and occupation for persons leaving the country, starting the series for out-migrations occurring in the year 2019, and only for definitive annual data. These data are obtained from administrative registers and reflect the situation of the person on 1 January of the reference year.
If necessary, a final adjustment of overseas migration data is carried out resulting from the statistical processing of information registered in the Municipal Register to guarantee complete consistency of these with the data of the Population Figures.