205,880 foreign nationals take Spanish nationality in 2014

A total of 205,880 foreign nationals obtained Spanish nationality in 2014 according to figures published on Friday by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE).

The figure shows a decline of 8.8 percent on that of 2013 and it looks certain that the trend is going to continue in 2015 as the INE also confirmed that just 66,454 foreigners obtained Spanish nationality in the first half of this year.

The majority of those who have taken Spanish nationality were either Moroccan, Ecuadorian or Colombian, with 34,807, 32,757 and 25,115 respectively.

They were followed by Bolivians, Peruvians, people from the Dominican Republic and Argentineans.

However, while there was a high proportion of new Spanish nationals from Latin American, there were very few from Asia, with Pakistan (3,327) the highest contributor. The INE did not say how many Chinese had taken Spanish nationality.

The INE highlighted that 10 percent of the new Spanish citizens were actually born in Spain and of those, 95 percent were younger than 10 years old, while 79 percent of new citizens were granted Spanish nationality due to having lived legally in Spain for 10 years or more.

The majority of new citizens live either in Barcelona and Madrid, while just over 1,000 live in the rural region of Extremadura.

This summer saw the Spanish government introduce a controversial citizenship exam drawn up by the Cervantes Institute.

Would-be citizens now have to answer a series of questions on Spanish history, culture, geography and politics in order to qualify. The test has raised eyebrows given that many Spaniards admit even they do not know many of the answers. Endit