Malaga is the Andalusian province with the highest rate of movement: in and out

Malaga is the Andalusian province highest influx of people from other parts of Spain and abroad. This is a well-known fact. But it is also the territory with the highest rate of emigration. And yet it is not the most populated province; this is Seville: on 1 April 2025 it had 1.97 million inhabitants, compared to Malaga's 1.78 million. In outlining these ideas, Professor of Sociology at the University of Malaga (UMA), Luis Manuel Ayuso González stated that this is due to the dynamism of the province. Employing a concept employed by sociologist Alejandro Portes of "mobile capital" - in this case mobile human capital - González confirmed this as the shared characteristic of new global cities.

Let's look at the data. In 2023 (the most recent year with available data) 109,314 immigrants arrived in Malaga. No other Andalusian province reached that figure. The one that came closest was Seville, where 70,798 people moved in that year. This means that almost 30% of the migrants that Andalucía received chose Malaga - the destination of 382,338 people.

Rafael Grande, senior lecturer in Sociology at UMA, explained that Malaga has been attracting a recurring population for three decades due to the greater dynamism in general of coastal areas; as a result of its intrinsic demand for labour, above all in the service sector. But Malaga also receives highly qualified profiles not only from abroad but also from other provinces of Andalucía and Spain; to which must be added the migration that takes up residence on the coast when they reach retirement age. Grande pointed out that this means that Malaga province has a great diversification of immigration. "Malaga attracts both because there are low and high-skilled job opportunities here and because it is a purely residential immigration destination," added geographer Juan José Natera. But another migratory phenomenon has been added into the mix, according to Grande: "More people are leaving now than before".

What are the numbers of people leaving the province? In 2023 there were 85,465, also the highest figure for Andalucía as a whole, followed by far behind Seville (59,621). Nearly 322,000 people left Andalucía in 2023, which means that emigrants from Malaga account for just over a quarter of the Andalusian total.

The migratory balance is positive for Malaga - more people enter than leave. The arrival of people from other provinces and other countries exceeds the departures: in 2023, Malaga's population grew by 23,849. In Andalucía as a whole, the difference was also favourable, with a positive balance of almost 60,400 people, a figure to which Malaga contributes almost 40%.

Of the people arriving in Malaga, almost half (53,658) come from abroad. The second most important origin is Andalucía itself, with 41,836. Remaining additional population come from other parts of Spain, including Madrid (3,953 people) and Catalonia (2,058).

As for those who leave Malaga, the majority (41,322 people) stay in Andalucía, while 32,245 go abroad. A particularly striking figure in comparison with other territories: for example, the number of people who leave Seville to emigrate to other countries barely exceeds 13,300.

According to Rafael Grande, Malaga natives have historically emigrated to Madrid and Catalonia. And, indeed, in 2023 these were the main destinations within Spain with around 2,800 and 1,840 people, respectively, followed by Valencia (1,418). Grande explained the sequence: in the first phase, unskilled labour emigrated from Malaga; in a second phase, the territory had high rates of permanence due to its high population retention capacity. Whereas now, people are forced to consider emigration due to the high cost of living and housing and the fact that population growth is outstripping infrastructure. In addition, many workers feel that they can prosper in the labour market outside the province.

"First, the population is driven out of the capital and into the metropolitan areas, but they get pushed further and further away. The province is very dynamic, but services and mobility solutions are not being generated at the required pace," he explained.

Although the figures also reveal that there is a high rate of internal mobility in Malaga: 41,322 people who left their place of residence in Malaga to go elsewhere in Andalucía in 2023. The majority (33,706) of these did not move to another province in the region, but moved within the boundaries of Malaga province. Even so, subtracting intra-provincial movements from the statistics, Malaga continues to be the province from which most people emigrated in 2023. And this is not an anomaly only present in 2023 - it has been the case since at least 2021.

Perhaps the true hypothesis is the one pointed out by Ayuso: Malaga has an enormous contingent of "mobile capital", which is what generates enormous movements in and out of the city. Grande furthered this idea: "Malaga has gone beyond the local level. The labour market, especially in the most qualified profiles, includes people from Malaga, Spain and across the world. This generates a great deal of mobility, with many people arriving and leaving. Many of the people who are leaving came a long time ago and are only leaving now. Malaga has a stock of people who are more likely to move because they have already emigrated once or more". Juan José Natera added that the increase of migration abroad suggests that there are people who are returning to their places of origin or for whom Malaga has been an intermediate station for moving elsewhere.

To this Grande added another element: "There are families rooted in the province. But if people do not manage to settle down here, we lose population. With reduced access to housing and therefore the possibility of forming a family - it is easier for them to migrate".

Rocío Fajardo, as a sociologist and migrant, concluded: "It's easy to leave if you come up against hostile environments or don't find a network. Malaga generates expectations but also frustrations".