Malaga among fastest growing Spanish areas in terms of innovation

Malaga has achieved one of the most notable milestones in the local innovation index - a Cotec tool developed in collaboration with urban planning think-tank Trescientosmil.

According to the latest report, Malaga recorded the fifth-largest increase in the 2022–2024 period, behind Arona (Tenerife), Palma, Menorca and A Coruña. Its score has risen from 2.79 points in 2022 to 4.14 in 2024, thereby exceeding the Spanish median (3.89 points according to the latest data, up from 3.06 in 2022). With this, Malaga has moved up from 33rd to 26th place in the ranking, making it the area with the most substantial improvement in this parameter.

The local innovation index analyses the innovative capacity of territories organised into functional areas, rather than strictly following the administrative and provincial boundaries. The study identifies 59 areas, higher than the number of Spanish provinces (50).

These areas are defined based on the daily travel patterns of residents on a typical working day and the measurement of the degree of innovation in each of these areas is based on 16 indicators grouped into five categories: investment, education, research, employment and businesses.

According to the study, Malaga's greatest strengths lie in the areas of employment and technology, where it has registered an increase of 15 positions since 2022, and business, where the increase has been nine places.

As the report describes it, Malaga is one of the "six attractive areas" along with Alicante, Arona, Palma, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Tarragona because "it generates good results with scarce resources", which matches the definition of "high efficiency". It is, therefore, among the provinces with "the greatest potential for growth".

Ahead of these areas are 24 others, including Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, Zaragoza, Seville and Vitoria, which combine high levels of resources and results.

Malaga's score, while above the Spanish median, is half that of Madrid and Barcelona, the joint leaders in the innovation map, with 8.84 and 8.83 points, respectively. Valencia (8.35), Zaragoza (7.44), and Bilbao (7.41) follow these two areas.

Behind Malaga and the rest of the "attractive areas" are six other "potential areas" that invest many resources but do not translate them sufficiently into results (Albacete, Cordoba, Huesca, Lugo, Merida and Salamanca), in addition to the 23 "latent areas", which have low levels of both investment and results (Algeciras, Ceuta, Melilla, Huelva, Jaén or Teruel).

Malaga stands out in two categories in particular: in employment and technology, where it ranks ninth out of 59 with a score of 6.33 points (the Spanish average is 3.17, while Madrid and Barcelona reach ten and Valencia, Zaragoza and San Sebastián exceed eight), and business, where it ranks 15th with a score of 5.67 (the Spanish average is 4.17).

Malaga's great business performance is thanks to the number of startups, where it ranks sixth in Spain, and also to gazelle companies, that is, those that stand out for their strong growth, where it ranks 15th in the country, with 1.42 companies per 10,000 inhabitants.

Meanwhile, in education, Malaga slightly surpasses the Spanish median (4.13 points, compared to 3.98), but remains far behind the leader in the ranking: Salamanca (ten points). Malaga has 40.41 university graduates per 10,000 inhabitants, compared to 51.60 in Spain, placing it 21st in the country. In doctoral theses, however, Malaga has 4.16 per 10,000 inhabitants (26th in the ranking), compared to the national average of 7.16 and more than 22 in Salamanca.

Similar is Malaga's case in the research category (2.55 points compared with Spain's 2.59), which places it in the middle of the ranking, in 31st position. In this category, the analysis takes into account European grants for scientific research, entities with European funding for scientific research, patent applications registered and published scientific articles.

Malaga performs worst in the area of investment, scoring just under two (compared with 3.69 for Spain as a whole), which places it 43rd in the ranking. The area lags behind in several aspects: very few organisations receive European funding for research, development and innovation (0.25 companies per 10,000 inhabitants, compared with 0.57 nationwide); the total amount of that funding is also much lower (just over 52,250 euros per 10,000 inhabitants, versus 174,130 euros in Spain); and fewer organisations receive state funding for R&D (0.08 companies per 10,000 inhabitants, about half the national average).