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Diari de Catalunya

Sabadell, Fifth Catalan City with Most Residents Abroad

The Vallès capital registers 8,384 citizens living outside Catalonia, 2% of the total Catalan population, according to Idescat data.

Generic image of a map of Europe with highlighted areas, symbolizing international migration.
IA

Generic image of a map of Europe with highlighted areas, symbolizing international migration.

The city of Sabadell is established as one of the Catalan localities with the most registered residents abroad, with 8,384 people as of January 1, 2026, according to data from the Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya (Idescat).

This figure represents 2% of the total Catalans living outside the country, which amounts to 427,423. Of the total Sabadell residents abroad, 4,332 are men and 4,052 are women. Between 2025 and 2026, 359 citizens registered in Sabadell emigrated, an interannual increase of 4.5%.
Only four Catalan cities surpass Sabadell in the number of residents abroad: Barcelona (192,869), l'Hospitalet de Llobregat (9,918), Terrassa (8,654), and Badalona (8,484).
The migratory trend is also reflected in Vallès Occidental, where as of January 1, 2026, there were 29,224 people born in the region residing abroad, 1,169 more than the previous year. Of these, 11,865 were born in Catalonia, 1,228 in the rest of Spain, 11,006 are from the same country of residence, and 5,101 from other countries. The majority of emigrants from Vallès (69%) are between 15 and 64 years old, followed by age groups 0-14 (19.7%) and over 65 (11.3%).
Overall, the migration of Catalans abroad has grown significantly. Idescat indicates that in 2017 there were 96,379 Catalans living abroad, a figure that increased to 128,833 as of January 1, 2026, an increase of 33.7% in nine years. Europe hosts the majority (221,261), followed by America (184,226), Asia (11,631), Africa (6,122), and Oceania (4,183). The countries with the most Catalan residents are France (62,335), the United Kingdom (39,012), Argentina (38,166), Germany (35,470), and the United States (30,602).

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