Foreign autónomos in Spain are no longer a small slice of the self-employed population. They are now the main reason the whole category is still growing at all.
New Social Security data, compiled by the Unión de Profesionales y Trabajadores Autónomos (UPTA), shows foreign self-employed registrations jumped 33.1% between July 2022 and July 2026. That is a rise from 399,890 to 532,356 foreign autónomos in just four years.
Spanish nationals registered under the same RETA scheme actually fell slightly over the same period, down 0.3% to 2,930,326. Without foreign workers, Spain’s self-employed sector would barely have grown at all.
Content
Which nationalities are driving the rise of foreign autónomos in Spain
The nationality breakdown is where it gets interesting for anyone weighing up their own move.
China now tops the list with 71,242 self-employed nationals in Spain, followed by Romania (55,051), Italy (44,358), Morocco (34,919), the United Kingdom (26,416) and Colombia (24,000).
Growth tells a slightly different story. Colombia added 13,269 new autónomos since 2022, Ukraine added 11,358, and Russia added 11,277, the fastest-growing groups by far, according to the same Infobae report.
“Since 2022, self-employment growth in Spain relies on foreign workers. We’ve added over 132,000 foreign self-employed while losing more than 7,600 Spanish nationals,”
Eduardo Abad, president of UPTA, told Infobae (translated from the original Spanish).
Foreign workers now make up 15.4% of all RETA affiliates, up from 12% just four years ago. Looking at the last decade instead of four years, the shift is even sharper: another recent report put the foreign share of self-employed workers at 17%, up from just 9% in 2016, according to autonomosyemprendedor.
Lorenzo Amor, president of the ATA freelancers’ association, described the modern self-employed collective as “more diverse, more international and with momentum” in that same autonomosyemprendedor’s report.
Where foreign autónomos in Spain are setting up
Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Madrid and Andalusia together account for roughly 70% of all foreign self-employed workers, with Barcelona and Madrid the leading provinces, followed by Alicante, Valencia and Málaga.
The Canary Islands stand out too. Foreign nationals made up 43% of all new autónomo registrations there since 2022, and now represent close to a quarter of the islands’ entire self-employed workforce.
“Foreigners don’t replace economic activity, they create it, and they often ensure business continuity,”
Abad told Atlántico Hoy about the Canary Islands trend (translated from the original Spanish).
These nationality figures line up closely with where most foreign autónomos are choosing to live, concentrated in just a handful of Spanish cities.
Commerce, hospitality and construction remain the sectors with the most foreign autónomos, but professional services, technology, transport and real estate are all growing fast.
What this means if you are thinking of becoming autónomo in Spain
These numbers matter beyond the statistics. They show that becoming a foreign autónomo in Spain is now a mainstream path, not a niche one, and that the paperwork and support infrastructure around it keeps improving as demand grows.
If you are an EU citizen, the process is comparatively simple and does not require a visa at all. Our guide on how to register as autónomo in Spain walks through the registration steps, from getting your NIE to your first Modelo 036 filing.
Non-EU nationals, including the growing Chinese, Moroccan, Colombian and Russian communities highlighted in this data, will typically need a visa route first, whether that is the entrepreneur visa, the digital nomad visa or a standard work permit converted to self-employment later.
Whichever nationality you belong to, the trend line is clear. Foreign autónomos in Spain are not a temporary blip. They are increasingly the backbone of the country’s self-employed economy, and the sectors, regions and support systems around them are adapting accordingly.
Sources
- Unión de Profesionales y Trabajadores Autónomos (UPTA), Social Security affiliation data (July 2022-July 2026)
- Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones (RETA registration figures)
Related articles
Foreign Self-Employed in Spain Hits a Record 531,000 Workers