Since the second half of the 1980’s, when net emigration abruptly reversed, Spain has experienced high levels of structural unemployment, even when annual growth was above 4%, in part owing to the high quality and generous provisions of Spain’s social-welfare system, which was also consolidated in the post-Franco period. As of 2011, an estimated 5.7 million residents (12% of the population) were immigrants – over a million more than in the significantly larger United Kingdom (with a population of 62 million).