The Council of Ministers expects to approve on Tuesday morning an extraordinary regularization of foreign individuals, the first to go ahead since 2005. Despite the fact that the Government of Spain estimates the number of beneficiaries nationwide at around half a million, the figures correspond to an approximation, as the irregular administrative situation prevents knowing the exact number of affected.
This regularization will benefit people who are in an irregular administrative situation and who have entered some of the autonomous communities or autonomous cities of Spain before January 1, 2026, having to prove five months of stay in the country. Sources from the Government Delegation in Lanzarote have reported that they do not yet have official figures of the people who could benefit on the island and state that it will be necessary to wait for the process to begin to make the first estimates. Meanwhile, La Voz offers detailed data on the main nationalities of foreign residents on the island.
This extraordinary regularization affects those people coming from outside the European Union, since European citizens have greater flexibility to work and move around the different member countries. For example, the British population residing on the island is divided between those who processed their residency before Brexit or those who have moved to the island after. Since January 1, 2021, Britons are governed by the General Immigration System, unless the residency processing was done before the transition period.
According to data from Lanzarote in Figures 2025, the island already has 166,878 inhabitants (3,648 more than a year ago), of which 24.6% are foreigners. By number of residents, the foreign nationality with the most inhabitants is Colombia, with 8,045, followed by the United Kingdom, with 5,944; in third position, Italy, with 4,346; and Morocco, in fourth position, with 4,248. They are followed by residents born in Germany, China, Venezuela, Ireland, Romania and Cuba.
The latest data from the National Institute of Statistics, as of January 1, 2026, increases the foreign inhabitants on the island to 58,902.
Largest foreign population in tourist centers and Costa Teguise
The data published on Tuesday morning by El País show that the foreign population in Lanzarote is more frequently distributed along coastal areas. For example, in Playa Blanca (Yaiza) the foreign population predominates (53.5%) over the Spanish, as in Montaña Roja (between 56.2 and 60.9% of foreigners depending on the area), with a greater number of people from the American continent and other European countries.
Meanwhile, in Puerto del Carmen there are areas where it is recorded that more than half of the residents are foreigners (between 52% and 58.3%), the majority coming from other European countries.
In the capital of Lanzarote, Arrecife, the distribution of the population by their country of birth is uneven, with a greater presence of foreigners from the American continent and, to a lesser extent, from Africa, in neighborhoods like Argana and in the central area of the capital.
Meanwhile, in the tourist town of Costa Teguise (27.7 and 42.3% foreigners depending on the area) foreigners from other European countries predominate and, to a lesser extent, Americans. The same occurs, with the coastal area of Haría, between the towns of Punta Mujeres and Arrieta (with 27% foreign population), most of them from the European continent.