Pensions in Malaga province are among the lowest in Spain
While in the Basque region the average retirement benefit reaches almost 2,000 euros a month, in the province which includes the Costa del Sol, it barely reaches 1,400 euros
The average retirement pension received in Malaga is 1,376.28 euros, according to data just updated by Spain's Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration in August. This figure places the province in thirty-first place in order of the amount of income earned by retired people, of whom there are more than 180,700 in Malaga.
The three Basque provinces top the ranking: in Vizcaya and Álava, retirees receive an average pension of over 1,800 euros, while those in Guipuzcoa earn an average of 1,781 euros. Pensioners in Asturias and Madrid also earn more than 1,700 euros. In Valladolid, Zaragoza, Burgos and Guadalajara it is above 1,600 euros, while in Barcelona it is 1,583 euros.
In the Andalucía region, the highest average pension is received in Cadiz, with almost 1,550 euros per month. After this province, the second highest Andalusian pension is that of Seville, with 1,421 euros and the third, that of Huelva, with almost 1,400 euros.
This means that a pensioner in Malaga gets 26 per cent less than one in The Basque Country. Moreover, the average retirement benefit in Malaga is also below the national average, which, according to the August data, is slightly over 1,500 euros, meaning pensioners in Malaga receive on average 8.7% less than the national average.
But Malaga's pensioners do receive more than those in other Andalusian provinces including Almeria, Jaén and Cordoba where pensions range between 1,240 and 1,260 euros. Although the lowest pensions in Spain are in two Galician provinces, Ourense and Lugo, with 1,082 and 1,172 euros, respectively. This means the pension in Malaga is 27 per cent higher than the lowest in the country.
Wages and work in industry
Malaga's position is consistent with a statistic published by Spain's tax agency a few weeks ago on salaries: Malaga is in 32nd place according to the income tax returns made in 2023, and this does not include the Basque areas, which have their own tax offices.
The amount of pensions is also often linked to the proportion of the active population working in the industrial sector. According to the latest INE national institute of statistics data, in Malaga it accounts for only 5.3% of employment, compared to figures above 20% in La Rioja, Álava, Navarra, Burgos, Castellón and Guipúzcoa.
Meanwhile, Malaga is the fifth province in Spain with the highest proportion of employment in the service sector, with almost 79% of all active workers, compared to 72.3% in Spain as a whole.
Other contributory pensions
But pensions are only one type of contributory benefit paid by Social Security. They also include permanent disability, widow's and widower's pensions, orphan's pensions and family benefits. Taking all these into account, which bring the number of recipients to 295,000 in Malaga, the average pension paid to beneficiaries is 1,195.30 euros, which puts the province of Malaga back in 30th place. The highest figures are again in Álava and Vizcaya, where they exceed 1,600 euros. The lowest, meanwhile, is in Ourense, where it does not even reach 1,000 euros. The average in Spain is 1,312.95 euros.
In Malaga province, the average permanent disability pension is 1,186.27 euros (1,209 in the country); widow's pension is 863.79 euros (in contrast to the national average of almost 936 euros); orphan's pension is 480.65 euros (compared to 526 euros in Spain) and the average family benefit is 733.4 euros (compared to 782.54 euros at the national level).
Malaga is the province with the fourth highest increase in the number of pensioners
In August, just over 180,700 retirement pensions were paid out in Malaga. This is almost 30% more than ten years ago, when the figure was fewer than 140,000. This also means that it is the fourth province in Spain where the number of pensioners has increased the most, behind Las Palmas (32%), Guadalajara (31.4%) and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (30%). Just behind Malaga is Almeria, where the number of retired people has risen by 27%. Other Andalusian provinces are also close behind, such as Cadiz (26.7%) and Seville (22.5%). The growth in Spain was 17%, to 6.6 million retirement pensions paid by Social Security. The increase has not been generalised throughout the country: there are three provinces where the number of retirement benefits is lower today than it was ten years ago: Lugo, Ourense and Zamora. But retirement pensions are only one type of contributory pension paid by Social Security, although they are the most abundant. In total, together with orphan's, widow's, widower's, disability or in favour of family members, a total of 10.37 million benefits are paid out in the country as a whole, a figure that is 11.5% higher than a decade ago. In Malaga, meanwhile, the total number of contributory benefits exceeds 295,000, a figure 18.4% higher than in 2015 at the same time. In terms of growth in total pensions, Malaga is the sixth largest province in Spain, behind the two Canary Islands, Guadalajara, Almería and Álava.
