Malaga is the province in Spain with the most gender-based murders this year

Malaga province paints a gruesome picture of gender-based violence this year: six women have been killed, reportedly by their partners or ex-partners, making this the most tragic year in the province since records began in 2003. Malaga also tops the national statistics, surpassing even Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, as reflected in data published by the government delegation against gender-based violence, part of the Ministry of Equality.

With a month to go before the end of the year, the annual balance sheet reviews the 40 deaths nationwide (nine fewer than last year and 30 fewer than 22 years ago) and the 13 in Andalucía (three more than last year and the same figure as in 2003). Indicators such as the ages and nationalities of both the victims and their attackers, the type of relationship they had, whether they lived together and whether they had children together continue to show that there is no recurrent profile. This scourge strikes regardless of origin or class, revealing the map of structural violence that, although hidden at first, always leaves a trace.

The women murdered in Malaga province from January to December 2025 are Catalina, Pilar, Zunilda, Eva, María Victoria and Concha. Their abusers took their lives by beating, stabbing or suffocating them. June and November were the worst months. Five of the victims lived with their attackers and three were married to them. Only two had reported them for abuse. Catalina (Lina) did so 20 days before her death, but the court denied her a restraining order because the VioGén algorithm that assesses the risk of gender-based violence determined "medium risk" in her case. She was the only fatal victim who had three underage children, who have now been left orphaned.

Her ex-partner murdered her at her home in Benalmádena on 9 February. On 20 January, Lina spoke to the police despite her hesitations. She said that her ex-partner had raised his hand to her, threatened and hit her on other occasions. With no measures in place to protect her, her abuser entered her house hooded and assaulted her after a brief argument. Although her children ran to her aid, he managed to strangle her. He then set fire to the property to make it look like an accident.

Four months later, around mid-morning on 7 June, a security guard at a hotel in Marbella was making her rounds near the accommodation when she noticed a body in a vacant lot in the Las Chapas district, behind a petrol station. The body belonged to 53-year-old Pilar. She had multiple injuries to her face. Investigators focused their attention on her partner, a 47-year-old Bulgarian citizen, who was finally arrested after turning himself in at the National Police station.

That same month, 43-year-old Zunilda's mother began to worry after not hearing from her daughter for several days. The woman, who had travelled from her native Colombia to Spain to spend a few days in Fuengirola, had previously told her family that her partner was "an aggressive man" and she was going to seek "a divorce" due to the abuse he was putting her through. Her friends in Fuengirola went to the National Police in Torremolinos. On 19 June, the police found her dead in the flat she and her husband were renting, in the Higuerón West residential complex. The main hypothesis is that he killed her with a hammer and then took his own life. He was found with stab wounds in that same flat.

On 3 September, 83-year-old Eva was also murdered at her home in Marbella. As in the previous cases, the suspect was her husband, who reportedly stabbed her with a 20-centimetre machete at least five times. The 84-year-old man was arrested by the National Police. The suspect died in the Alhaurín de la Torre prison on 8 November.

The last two gender-based crimes took place in the space of just four days. On Saturday, 22 November, 60-year-old Rincón de la Victoria resident María Victoria was stabbed to death by her ex-husband, who is currently in provisional detention. According to witness statements taken in the area that day, the couple were separated, but she visited him because she was concerned about his condition, as he was undergoing psychiatric treatment. On Wednesday, 26 November, the Guardia Civil found the body of Concha, 25, in a house in Campillos. According to her friends, after breaking up with her boyfriend the previous weekend, he had refused to leave the house. He turned himself in at the police station in Martos, in the province of Jaén.

The province has recorded 63 gender-based crimes in the last 23 years. According to statistics, January has been the month with the highest incidence of crimes within this category: eight women have been killed by their partners or ex-partners over the years, two of them in January 2006. July follows closely behind, with seven recorded deaths, two of them in 2014. In terms of age, 18 of the women killed by gender-based violence were in the 41-50 age group; ten in the 51-60 group; and another ten were between 71 and 80; the remaining 18 were between 21 and 40 years old.

By nationality, 63.49% of the women were Spanish, similarly to the percentage of perpetrators of Spanish nationality (61.9%). The data from the Ministry of Equality shows that 23.81% of the men who killed their partners or ex-partners took their own lives after that, while a further 14.29% attempted to do so.

Although 15.87% of murdered women had already left their abusers and 30.16% did not live with them, this detail did not save their lives. Despite separations, the abuse would continue with shouting, control and insults. At least 14 of the victims (22.22%) tried to break the silence and report their abusers. The majority (68.25%), however, were unable to do so. There is no record that shows whether the remaining 9.52% had gone to a police station or a court.

The other major victims of gender-based violence in its most brutal form are the orphaned children of victims. Their mothers' (and sometimes fathers') deaths often leave them without a family and a long road ahead. Their studies are disrupted and they often need financial assistance. A total of 23 children have been orphaned by such crimes since 2003, most of them since 2022.

Almost half of all gender-based crimes in Andalucía this year happened in the province of Malaga. While the region as a whole has identical figures to those of 2003, the province of Malaga stands out with an upward trend over the last four years, making it the worst-affected area in 2025.

A different trend can be traced in the country as a whole. Spain has recorded the lowest figure in the entire historical series, with a peak reached in 2008 (76 victims). Although there have been some ups and downs, the national trend is marked by stabilisation and even a decrease in fatalities.