Romanians in Spain form the largest group of foreigners in the country, having surpassed Moroccans in 2007. , they made up 14.2% of Spain's total foreign population of 5,598,691 people. Most of the immigration

Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

 is for economic reasons, as many Romanians from rural and underdeveloped areas are attracted by the higher wages of Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, the linguistic similarities between Romanian

Romanian language

Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...

 and Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, as well as Romanians' Latin identity

Latin Europe

Latin Europe is a loose term for the region of Europe with an especially strong Latin cultural heritage inherited from the Roman Empire.-Application:...

are also a reason for the country's attractiveness.

Population

• 1998: 2,258
• 1999: 3,147
• 2000: 6,410
• 2001: 31,641
• 2002: 67,279
• 2003: 137,347
• 2004: 207,960
• 2005: 317,366
• 2006: 407,159
• 2007: 527,019
• 2008: 728,967
• 2009: 796,576
• 2010: 829,715