Around 40,000 Spaniards packed their bags to emigrate during the first six months of 2013, authorities said Tuesday.
This population of 40,000 is a 26.3 percent rise in the number who abandoned Spain in the last six months of 2012 and is 53.6 percent up on the same period last year, Xinhua cited from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
However, it is not just Spaniards who are leaving the country.
According to the INE, a total of 259,227 people left the country in the first six months of 2013, with majority of them (219,537) foreigners, who chose to leave due to the lack of opportunities as a result of the economic crisis and an unemployment rate of over 25 percent.
These departures were partially offset by the arrival of 134,312 citizens, of whom 14,831 were Spanish returnees, although that means that between January and June the population fell by 124,915, 50 percent up on the last six months of 2012.
As a result the country's population fell by 118,238 in the first half of the year to now stand at 46,609,652.
The study highlights the continued decline in numbers of immigrants to Spain (11 percent) and a continued rise in the number of Spaniards who are leaving.
The INE recently predicted that a fall in immigration, a rise in emigration and the falling birthrate would cause Spain's population to fall by as much as 10 percent over the next 40 years.
