Foreign freelancers have increased by nearly 105,000 since 2021 | Credits: Shutterstock
The freelancers, or autónomos, by their term in Spain, have reshaped the employment market across the country, according to a report released by the National Freelancers Association (ATA) on Monday.
The study reveals that 96.5 per cent of all freelancers in the last four years are from outside Spain. It notes that since 2021, the country has had 108,155 new autónomos, of which 104,338 are of foreign nationality.
“In the last four years, from March 2021 to March 2025, the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA) added a total of 108,155 self-employed workers, of whom 104,338 were foreign entrepreneurs, representing 96.5 per cent of the total growth,” the report reiterates. The report also reveals that, over the last four years, the number of foreign freelancers has increased in all of Spain’s 17 autonomous communities, except for the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. These two cities have lost national and foreign freelancers in the period covered by the report.
A decrease in Spanish freelancers
However, in nine autonomous communities—Aragón, Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Galicia, Navarra, Euskadi, and La Rioja—the number of national freelancers has decreased. Conversely, the number of foreigners working as autonómos has increased.
“As for the regions where the number of self-employed workers of Spanish and foreign nationality has increased, in virtually all of them the growth of foreign self-employed workers, in absolute terms, has been greater than that of national self-employed workers, except Andalusia, the Canary Islands and the Community of Madrid, regions where the growth of self-employed workers of Spanish nationality is greater than that of foreign self-employed workers,” the report indicated.
In the Valencian Community, there are 22,391 more foreign self-employed workers, compared to only 2,134 new Spanish self-employed individuals.
Important pillars in freelancer growth
ATA President Lorenzo Amor stated that the data show that self-employed foreign workers have become a fundamental pillar for the growth of freelancers in the Spanish system.
“The growth of foreign autónomos over national ones is not a simple statistic; it is a reality that demonstrates the vitality and dynamism they bring to the Spanish productive fabric,” Amor added.
The ATA head also said, “that all labour sectors of Spain have seen an increase in self-employed workers from outside our borders over the last four years.”
Amor said that, “In contrast, there have been significant declines in some sectors regarding domestic self-employed workers.”
Freelancer growth by sector
Construction has seen the highest increase in foreign autónomos, with 17,446, followed by professional, scientific, and technical activities, at 13,906, in hospitality, at 12,670, and in information and communication, at 11,115.
“The sector that has seen the greatest growth since March 2021 is the professional, scientific, and technical activities, with a total of 43,708 more self-employed workers, of whom 29,802 were Spanish and 13,906 were foreign,” Amor concluded.
