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The number of foreign self-employed workers in the Region of Murcia has grown by 18.4% in just two years, rising from 10,215 in August 2024 to 12,094 in 2026, according to new analysis from UPTA Spain, the union representing self-employed workers. That puts foreign nationals at 11.4% of all self-employed people in the region, and the trend shows no sign of slowing.

 

The picture fits a broader pattern that has been building for some time. Eight out of ten new self-employed workers registered in Murcia over the past four years have been foreign nationals, and at national level, foreign workers hit a record high earlier this year, with their contribution to Social Security growing faster than the overall workforce.

 

UPTA projects that if current growth rates continue, Murcia could have nearly 17,000 foreign self-employed workers by 2031, an increase of almost 40% on today's figures. Eduardo Abad, president of UPTA Spain, is clear about what that means. "We are facing a very significant transformation of self-employment in the region," he says. "We need to take advantage of all this entrepreneurial potential.

 

The sectors where foreign self-employed workers are already most visible are hospitality, where they represent 19.2% of the total, commerce at 14.6% and construction at 12.5%. Part of the 2026 acceleration is linked to the extraordinary regularisation process, which brought nearly 340,000 people into Social Security registration across Spain, around 17,000 of them as self-employed.

 

But Abad's most striking argument is about rural Murcia. Many small municipalities are facing a combination of ageing business owners, lack of successors and dwindling services. "In many municipalities, we're not just talking about saving a business," he says. "We're talking about keeping open the bar, the shop, the workshop, or certain services that allow people to continue living there. New foreign entrepreneurs can be essential to keeping our villages alive."

 

UPTA is calling for a dedicated strategy to support foreign entrepreneurship, covering training, financing, skills certification and mentoring during the early years of a business. It also proposes creating formal pathways to connect potential entrepreneurs with retiring business owners looking for someone to take over a going concern.

 

"We need to stop viewing immigration solely as a source of salaried workers," Abad says. "Providing them with training, financing, and support also means creating wealth, retaining population, and fostering integration and coexistence."

 

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