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Date Published: 21/06/2023

This is the Spanish region where one in eight residents is British

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The Alicante coastal resort is now home to 10,000 UK citizens

This is the Spanish region where one in eight residents is British

There’s hardly a corner of the globe which the British haven’t made their own and these days, a whopping 5.5 million UK passport holders, or one in ten, live abroad. While many expats opt for English-speaking nations like Australia, Canada and the US, Spain has always been a firm favourite, particularly for retirees, who are drawn by its mild year-round climate.

It’s estimated that around 300,000 British citizens now call Spain their permanent home and their communities are dotted all around the country, but news outlet Express.co.uk has compiled a list of towns and cities where the highest concentrations of Britons reside, and the results just might surprise you.

The most popular towns for the British

The party hotspot of Benidorm is without doubt one of the Costa Blanca’s top holiday destinations for UK tourists but when Brits decide to put down roots they do so a little further south, along the white-washed shores of the Orihuela Costa.

The area has a total population of almost 80,000, and no fewer than 10,000 of these inhabitants are British – that’s one out of every eight residents. The region’s namesake city of Orihuela is a truly picturesque medieval old town situated inland but it’s surely the area’s dozens of spectacular Blue Flag beaches that provide the major draw.

Now read: Zenia Boulevard Centro Comercial—What to do at La Zenia shopping centre in Orihuela Costa, Alicante

In second place is the high-end town of Mijas in Andalucia, uniquely nestled by towering mountains on one side and crystalline coast on the other. Here, one in ten permanent residents are from the UK, or 9.9% of the total population.

We move to the Balearic Islands for spot number three and the Mallorca city of Calvià where more than a third of residents are foreigners, 7.9% of them British.

Fourth position goes to the Costa del Sol’s bustling region of Fuengirola, where Britons account for 6.7% of all inhabitants. This is followed by Torrevieja (5.7%), Estepona (5.7%) and Benidorm (4.9%).

Bringing up the rear, but still with a very healthy number of British expats are Benalmádena (4.9%), Arona in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (4.8%) and Marbella (3.2%).

Image: Archive

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