Spanish people of Filipino ancestry
There are many Spanish people of Filipino ancestry, consisting of the descendants of early migrants from the Philippines to Spain, as well as more recent migrants. Some 200,000 Filipinos are estimated to live in Spain, including 37,000 expatriates from the Philippines living in Spain who do not hold Spanish citizenship.
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 200,000 (2018) Including an estimated 37,000 people with Filipino citizenship only. | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and other urban areas The following numbers (from 2021) represent Filipinos in Spain with Filipino citizenship only. | |
| Community of Madrid | 16,119 (43.17%) |
| Catalonia | 11,765 (31.51%) |
| Andalusia | 2,857 (7.65%) |
| Balearic Islands | 2,214 (5.93%) |
| Canary Islands | 1,911 (5.12%) |
| Languages | |
| Castilian Spanish, Philippine Spanish, regional languages of Spain, English, Filipino and/or other Philippine languages | |
| Religion | |
| Mainly Roman Catholicism, some Protestantism and Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Filipino people and Spanish people individually | |
Filipino migration to Spain has a long history owing to the Philippines being a Spanish possession for much of its history. While Filipino migration within the Spanish Empire was recorded as early as the 16th century, the first Filipino migrants to metropolitan Spain only began arriving in the late 19th century, forming the country's first and oldest Asian immigrant community, although mass migration would not begin until after Philippine independence. Rapid growth in the community since the 1990s has led to Filipinos in Spain forming one of the largest Filipino diaspora communities in Europe.
Historically one of the country's largest Asian minority groups, today Filipinos rank alongside the Chinese and Pakistanis as among one of Spain's three largest Asian minorities. Most Filipinos in Spain overwhelmingly live in the country's two largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, with smaller communities present in the rest of the country.