Fuengirola is Spain's fifth largest municipality in terms of number of bars per capita

Spain averages one bar for every 207 inhabitants, according to a report published by Accumin Intelligence, a data analytics company. However, this ratio pales in comparison to the Malaga municipality of Fuengirola, which boasts 981 bars for its 85,646 residents, making it one bar for every 87.3 inhabitants. This makes it the fifth municipality in Spain with over 50,000 inhabitants in terms of the density of restaurants and bars, according to data released on Wednesday by Accumin. For the purposes of this analysis, a bar is defined as any locality where one can have a coffee or a beer, so this includes everything from cafés to restaurants and even to ice-cream parlours.

Fuengirola, according to Accumin's calculations, has - and this is another way of measuring it - 11.5 bars per inhabitant, a figure that barely places this town behind only four municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. Top of the list is Calvià, in the Balearic Islands, with one bar for every 63.6 residents, or 15.7 bars per 1,000 inhabitants. In second place is Ibiza town, also in the Balearic archipelago, which has one bar for every 68 inhabitants, or 14.7 for every 1,000 inhabitants.

Also ahead of Fuengirola are San Bartolomé de Tirajana, in the Canary Islands, with one bar for every 69 inhabitants, or 14.5 bars for every 1,000 inhabitants. Then comes Benidorm, in the region of Valencia, which has one bar for every 75 inhabitants, while the number of bars for every 1,000 residents in this town is 13.2.

Moreover, among the municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, Fuengirola is not the only one in Malaga province that appears among the top 20 for most bars and restaurants per person. Torremolinos is also among them, boasting 734 bars for its 70,920 residents - that's one for every 96.6 inhabitants or, put another way, 10.3 bars for every 1,000 inhabitants.

Marbella comes straight after, with 9.9 bars per 1,000 inhabitants, or one bar per 100 inhabitants, as there are 1,577 bars for its approximately 160,000 residents.

Torremolinos and Marbella rank in eighth and ninth places, behind Adeje in the Canary Islands and Toledo, the first provincial capital to appear on this list.

What this also means is that the Costa del Sol province has the most bars per capita in all Andalucía. The only other Andalusian city to appear in the top 20 on this list that is not in Malaga province is Granada, in 14th place. The home of the Alhambra has 1,694 bars for its 233,532 inhabitants, meaning one bar for every 138 inhabitants or 8.4 bars for every 1,000 residents.

Among the major provincial capitals of Spain, the greatest number of such places do business where there are large concentrations of people, thus diluting the density per capita of such commercial activity. Barcelona is the only large city to appear in this top 20 list of cities and towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants for most food and drink establishments. Moreover, it only just makes the ranking, in 20th place, with 7.7 bars per 1,000 residents, or 129 inhabitants per bar.

If we look only at the Spanish cities, among the 20 with the most bars there is still the aforementioned Toledo, as well as Cuenca, Granada, León, Ciudad Real, Segovia, Pamplona and Albacete, although not Malaga city.

According to the analysis carried out by Gerardo Raido, marketing director with Accumin Intelligence, this ranking of the number of bars relative to the population of each municipality, "provides revealing objective information about our way of life, how we interact and how we grow. This map is a living reflection of the land: where bars abound, there is dynamism, tourism and community, but where they are lacking, depopulation leaves its mark." Soria, Palencia, Ávila and Burgos, all in Castilla y León, are the provinces with the highest number of municipalities where no bars operate.