Population growth in Tenerife forms a vibrant and rapidly changing mosaic of cultures, nationalities, and social layers.
With nearly half of the residents born outside the island, diversity is steadily increasing. At the same time, challenges surrounding integration, social cohesion, and political representation are also mounting. In three municipalities on Tenerife, the number of residents born outside Spain exceeds the number of those born in Tenerife. Remarkably, nearly half of Tenerife’s population was not born on the island.
Venezuelans
22.6% of the inhabitants of the Canary Islands were born outside Spain. That amounts to 505,075 people, according to data from the Canary Institute of Statistics (Istac) as of January 1, 2024, and represents an increase of 5.8% compared to the previous year.
3.7% of the population in the Canary Islands was born in Venezuela, followed by Cuba (2.6%), Colombia (2.2%), and Italy (1.9%). In 2024, the number of Canary Islands residents born in Venezuela increased by 5,596.
By continent, island and municipality
By continent, there are 172,717 Europeans (excluding Spaniards) living on the islands, including 43,390 Italians; 47,077 Africans, including 29,314 Moroccans; 261,422 people from the Americas, including 82,890 Venezuelans; 23,490 Asians, including 9,213 Chinese; and 369 people from Oceania.
By island, Fuerteventura has the highest percentage of residents born outside Spain (38.4%), followed by Lanzarote (33.2%), El Hierro (30.5%), La Gomera (25.4%), Tenerife (24.7%), La Palma (22.6%) and Gran Canaria (15.6%).
There are four municipalities in the Canary Islands — three of them in Tenerife — where the number of foreign-born residents exceeds the number of locals:
Adeje: 56.52% foreign residents, Arona: 51.8%, Santiago del Teide: 51.5%, and La Oliva in Fuerteventura, where foreigners make up 50.74% of the population.
Native residents
Istac also provides data on people born in other Spanish regions: 8.4% of the archipelago’s inhabitants were born in other autonomous communities, mainly in Andalusia, Madrid, Galicia, and Catalonia (in that order).
In Fuerteventura, 15.6% of the population was born in other Spanish regions, in Lanzarote 14.7%, in Tenerife 7.9%, in Gran Canaria 7.06%, in La Palma 5.33%, in El Hierro 6.8%, and in La Gomera 5.04%.
Gran Canaria is by far the island with the highest percentage of residents born there: 75%.
It is followed by La Palma (66.6%), Tenerife (62%), La Gomera (56.4%), Lanzarote (44.8%), El Hierro (42.2%), and Fuerteventura (33.4%).
Largest population growth in Tenerife
At the beginning of 2024, a total of 2,238,754 people were registered in the Canary Islands’ population register, an increase of 1.2% compared to January 1, 2023.
In 2023, the population of the islands grew by 25,738 people. By island, Tenerife led in absolute growth with 10,374 new residents, followed by Gran Canaria (+7,091), Lanzarote (+4,432), Fuerteventura (+2,524), La Palma (+1,044), La Gomera (+146), and El Hierro: +127.
In relative terms, Lanzarote (2.8%) and Fuerteventura (2%) had the highest population growth, followed by La Palma (1.2%), El Hierro and Tenerife (both 1.1%), Gran Canaria (0.8%) and La Gomera (0.7%).
Fast-growing municipalities
At the municipal level, Arrecife (+5.1%) and Granadilla de Abona (+3.9%) were the fastest-growing municipalities in the Canary Islands. They are among the three fastest-growing municipalities in all of Spain, only surpassed by Torrevieja, with a growth of 6.7%.
Of the 88 municipalities in the Canary Islands, only 14 lost population in the past year. In absolute terms, the population loss in these municipalities amounted to 297 fewer people in total.
Hermigua, in La Gomera, lost the most population in relative terms, with a 2.7% decline between January 1, 2023, and January 1, 2024.
Guy Devos @ AI Illustration
Population growth in Tenerife ©
Source: Instituto Canario de Estadística (Istac)
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