La Seguridad Social suma más de 800.000 afiliados extranjeros desde la reforma laboral y cierra 2025 en máximos históricos

The Social Security registered in December 3,135,581 foreign affiliates, once the effects of seasonality and the calendar were discounted. This figure means that 2025 ended with more than 800,000 members more than before the labor reform and almost one million more than before the impact of the pandemic, in December 2019.

Foreign employment thus closes 2025 at historic levels, after adding 208,000 people in the last twelve months, a positive evolution that has remained practically uninterrupted throughout the year and that has consolidated affiliation over three million since last month. In the last month, the number of employed people from other countries increased by 13,578, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Since December 2019, the membership of foreign workers has grown by 45%, chaining for the third consecutive year increases of more than 200,000 people. In the system as a whole, foreign workers already represent 14.1% of the total number of contributors to the Social Security, six tenths more than a year ago. The number of contributors to the Social Security is 6. Women already represent 43% of the total number of foreign workers.

29.9% of foreign affiliates come from European Union countries. By nationality, Morocco continues to be the main country of origin, followed by Romania, Colombia, Venezuela, Italy and China. Among the different nationalities, workers from Venezuela are the fastest growing group in the last year, with 215,735 members, which is 40,614 more than in December 2024, an increase of 23.2%. They are followed by Colombia, with 28,929 more members, and Morocco, with an increase of 26,839 people.

Morocco is the country from which the largest number of workers affiliated to Social Security comes, with 373,436 contributors, followed by Romania (336,530), Colombia (250,248), Venezuela (215,735), Italy (204,700), China (128,113), Peru (101,144) and Ukraine (78,456). Foreign people choose our country to live, work and contribute to the common welfare,” said Minister Elma Saiz.

General Social Security System

The contribution of foreign workers is especially relevant in some sectors of the General Social Security System. In Hospitality they represent 28.8% of the members; in Agriculture, 26%; in Construction they represent 23.2%, and in Transport and Administrative Activities, 17.7%. In Transport and Storage there is the highest year-on-year growth of foreign affiliation, with 26% more than a year ago, followed by Water Supply, Construction and Agriculture. At the end of the year, the number of foreign self-employed workers reached 496,888, a new record high after growing by 6.3% year-on-year, well above the increase in the number of self-employed workers. In the last year, the number of foreign self-employed workers has increased by 25.9% in Information and Communications, in Energy Supply, 22%, 19.2% in Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities and 14.2% in Financial and Insurance Activities.

Quality in the job created

Not only is more employment created, but it is also of higher quality for all workers. Thus, the open-ended full-time contracts of foreign workers have been the ones that have won the most since 2021, and they are already 58.5% of the total (+15pp). Likewise, the percentage of undefined part-time contracts increases from 12.9% to 19.2% of the total. However, temporary contracts experienced a reduction: when they dropped from 38.9%, which they assumed before the labor reform, to 12%.

Additional information in Excel and on the web:
https://w6.seg-social.es/PXWeb/pxweb/es