Malaga consolidates its top spot in Andalucía with highest number of companies

Malaga province has 59,480 companies registered with Spain's Social Security system, according to data updated on Tuesday by Andalucía's institute of statistics and cartography (IECA). This figure consolidates the Costa del Sol province as the one with the most actively trading companies in all of Andalucía, with Seville ranked in second place (56,862). Therefore, almost one in every four Andalusian companies has its registered office in Malaga.

If we look at IECA data for the month of September in recent years, Malaga's superiority in terms of the number of companies has been the case since 2022. At that time, the 56,591 trading companies registered with Social Security in Malaga contrasted with the 55,112 in Seville. Twelve months earlier, Malaga's companies amounted to 54,876, compared to 54,945 in Seville. However, if we do not limit ourselves to the month of September and instead broaden the field to what has been happening over the last five years as a whole, since 2020 we can see that, in reality, the provinces of Malaga and Seville had been vying for first place month after month until December 2021, which is when Malaga categorically overtook Seville. So, for 45 consecutive months, the Costa del Sol province has led the provincial business rankings in this region.

Malaga's superiority is due primarily to the dynamism of the services sector. In this case, the 47,508 Malaga-based companies registered in September of this year contrast with the 41,637 in Seville. This is especially true in the hospitality sector (the 9,604 companies in Malaga are more than the nearly 7,000 in Seville). A similar situation exists in the real estate sector, with 2,377 companies in Malaga compared to 1,425 in Seville. Also in logistics (3,669 compared to 2,358 respectively) and in auxiliary support activities (Malaga's 3,805 compared to Seville's 2,644).

Malaga also leads the ranking in the construction sector, with nearly 7,000 companies, compared to 5,454 in Seville.

However, in the agricultural sector, Malaga lags behind most of the other provinces of Andalucía with only 2,442 companies. First is Almeria (9,731 companies), then Seville (5,745 companies) and Jaen (4,817). In fact, Malaga is only ahead of Huelva province (2,301) in terms of companies in this primary sector.

As far as industry is concerned, Seville also has the advantage here, with more than 4,000 companies according to the latest data from September, as opposed to the nearly 2,600 in Malaga.

This dominance by the Costa del Sol province for the number of companies within the region of Andalucía makes it unsurprising that Malaga also features heavily in the list of towns and cities with the highest number of companies. Thus, among the 50 municipalities in Andalucía with the most companies, 13 are in Malaga, that's 26% or one in four, meaning double the share that should correspond to Malaga, given that there are eight provinces in the region.

A curious state of affairs is that, while Malaga province has more companies than those in Seville province, the same is not true of their respective capitals. Seville is the Andalusian city with the largest productive fabric, with 22,743 companies, compared to Malaga's 20,146, relegating the port city to second place in the ranking. Both capitals have more companies registered with Social Security than two entire provinces: Jaen (less than 20,000 companies) and Huelva (just over 14,500).

The advantage of Malaga's slightly more than 2,600 companies over Seville lies, therefore, not so much in the capital, but in the province. Manuel Méndez, dean of Malaga's college of economists, has analysed this state of affairs and declares it as positive, since it implies a dissemination of the productive fabric throughout the province. In fact, he advocates that it should go further, because it is not necessary for a company to set up in the capital and thus the productive fabric, wealth and population can all be shared out beyond city limits, although the precondition for this to be possible is an improvement in transportation infrastructure.

Turning to the detail, these companies are actually spread all along the coastline, to the east and west of Malaga city, not throughout the province. Thus, after the cities of Seville, Malaga, Cordoba and Granada, the fifth municipality in Andalucía with the highest number of companies is Marbella (8,721). Marbella has more companies in business than the cities of Jaén, Huelva and Cadiz.

Before continuing with Malaga, here's another interesting fact: in the province of Cadiz, there is one municipality with more companies than its provincial capital. Jerez de la Frontera has 5,884 companies registered with Social Security, compared to 3,279 in Cadiz city.

Next, from 14th place in the ranking of Andalusian municipalities by number of companies, we find Fuengirola, Mijas, Vélez-Málaga and Estepona, with 3,152, 2,814, 2,773 and 2,637 companies respectively. Malaga towns do not appear again until positions 21 and 22 on the list, occupied by Torremolinos and Benalmádena, with around 2,500 companies apiece.

Finally, in 32nd place at the regional level and 9th in Malaga province, there is an inland town, Antequera (1,337), followed by Ronda that, with 1,138 companies, is the 10th town with the most companies in the province (and 39th in Andalucía). In addition, there are three other Malaga municipalities with over 1,000 companies in each: Nerja, Alhaurín de la Torre and Rincón de la Victoria.

In summary: Malaga province has 13 municipalities with over 1,000 companies in each, compared to ten in Cadiz, eight in Seville and five in Almeria.

Data graphs etc: Alba Martín Campos