Spain’s population falls for first time since civil war

Spain's population fell last year for the first time since the 1940s as immigrants fled a five-year on-and-off recession that has sent unemployment soaring.

The number of residents fell by 206,000 to 47.1 million, the National Statistics Institute said on the 22 April 2013, a figure entirely accounted for by the fall in the number of registered foreign residents.

It was the first time a population drop had been recorded in official statistics since 1946, in the aftermath of Spain's civil war - although until 1998 figures were published roughly every decade, rather than annually.