Malaga creates fewer companies, but they are on the bigger side

The pace of business creation has slowed in Malaga province. In return, however, the capital with which new businesses are created has risen sharply, suggesting that business investment has increased and that new companies are larger and more capitalised. This is the dual interpretation to be made of the statistics published on Tuesday this week by Spain's INE national statistics institute.

Let's take these one by one. To begin with, between January and April, 2,536 companies were created in Malaga province, some 9.6% less than in the same period in 2024, when 2,805 companies were set up. Of these first four months of 2025, only March managed to beat the number of new companies in 2024. For example, in the last month for which the INE has data, April, the 639 new companies contrast with the 855 of the previous year, representing a 25% decline. Bear in mind, though, that Easter fell in April this year compared to 2024, when the holidays were celebrated in March. So, in Spain as a whole, the number of companies incorporated remained at around 11,800 in April.

The balance of business creation in Spain as a whole paints a slightly better picture than in the province, with the decline in the number of commercial companies established in the country standing at 5.2% - practically half that of Malaga - as the 44,117 in 2024 contrasts with the 41,813 for this year up to April.

Still, there is another metric in which Malaga fares much better. While fewer companies are being set up now than a year ago, the resources with which they start up are greater. In detail: the capital with which the companies were officially registered and created in the first four months of this year in the province amounted to 130.41 million euros, a figure that is 62.7% higher than in the same period last year, when it was limited to 80.15 millions.

Even more striking is what happened in April. The 25% year-on-year fall in company start-ups has already been mentioned. However, the capital with which companies were created was 48.4 million euros, which represents a 42% increase compared to just over 34 million euros in the same month a year earlier.

This trend recorded in Malaga, the increase in the capital with which companies are created, runs counter to what is happening in Spain as a whole. For Spain, the capital raised for company creation in the first four months of 2025 is 26.5% lower than the figure for the previous year, a stark difference between the 1.76 billion euros to date in 2025 and the almost 2.4 billion euros the previous year.

With these figures Malaga continues to be among the most dynamic provinces in terms of business. So far this year it has registered the third highest number of commercial companies (2,536), behind only Madrid (9,385) and Barcelona (6,410), and ahead of Valencia (2,470). In terms of the amount of capital with which companies are created, even after the sharp increase recorded this year compared to last, Malaga remains in fourth place, behind Madrid (329.11 millions) and Barcelona (284 millions), but this time also behind Valencia (153.8 millions).

It might also be worthwhile performing another calculation, which is to see how much money on average is accrued to set up each company. So, if between January and April, 2,536 commercial companies were created in the province with a total capital of just over 130 million euros, the average amount per company is 51,425 euros, compared to 28,573 euros just a year ago, an increase of almost 80%.

This average capital with which each company was founded this year in Malaga is above the Spanish average, which so far in 2025 has stood at just over 42,100 euros, a decrease of 22.4% compared to last year's figure, when each company was founded with more than 54,000 euros.

However, while Malaga is the third province in terms of number of companies and the fourth in terms of total capital subscribed, it has dropped a few more places in the ranking by average capital. In fact, to thirteenth place. Thus, there are 12 provinces where companies are founded, on average, with more money than the Costa del Sol province. So far this year, two provinces in Guadalajara and Navarra have exceeded 100,000 euros per company, while in Lleida and Vizcaya they are around 95,000 euros. In Ceuta, the figure is 77,200 euros. Then in Burgos, Zaragoza, Cantabria, Valencia, Girona and Cordoba the figure ranges from 70,000 to 60,000 euros. The other region to surpass Malaga is Murcia (57,510 euros).