Demographics
Sections
Highlight
Sections
Highlight
Malaga province's population growth is mainly due to the arrival of foreigners who register to live here.
According to a survey published by the National Statistics Institute (INE) on Thursday 13 February, on 1 January 2025 the province had 1,789,103 residents, which represents a total growth of 14,402 residents.
This is the lowest population increase since the pandemic, when the increase in the number of residents at the end of 2020 was 13,575. In 2022, population grew by 37,619 people and in 2023 - by nearly 22,000.
A slower population growth rate is the general trend in Spain. The country gained 458,289 inhabitants in 2024, reaching 49 million. This is the lowest increase since 2019, when the rise was limited to 400,000 people.
What is most significant about the specific features of Malaga's increase in population in the last year, is that, out of the 14,402 new residents, 14,005 were foreigners. In other words, 97% of the province's population growth last year was due to the arrival of individuals of foreign origin.
The total number of new foreign-born inhabitants of Malaga, who contribute to the workforce, wealth, tax revenue and income has risen from 414,316 to over 428,000. However, as with the general population, this is the lowest growth since 2020, when the pandemic hindered the growth rate and there were only 11,242 new foreign residents. The biggest increase in recent years was in 2022, when the foreign population rose by more than 36,200 people.
397 Spanish-born residents
were gained in the province of Malaga last year. This is the lowest figure in at least the last decade.
What happened to the growth rate of Spaniards living in Malaga province? Well, it did increase, but by very little. Over the past year Malaga province barely gained 397 native residents, reaching 1,360,782 people. This is the lowest growth of Spanish-born residents in at least the last decade. In 2023, the province registered an increase of 603 people. Ten years ago, the increase was at a rate of more than 7,500 people.
While Malaga still experiences an increase in both foreigners and native population, such is not the case in Spain as a whole. Nationally, the gain of 541,738 people from abroad is what makes up for the loss of nearly 84,500 Spaniards.
This is not the first year in which Spain has lost Spanish-born residents, which is a phenomenon that has been occurring for at least the last decade. Spain's demographic increase has relied on the arrival of people from outside the country for at least the last ten years.
On 1 January this year, Spain had 39.68 million inhabitants born in Spain (in 2014 there were 40.5 million) and 9.38 million people from other countries (ten years ago there were around 6 million).
How does Malaga compare with the rest of the provinces in terms of growth in the number of residents? It ranks sixth in terms of absolute population growth, behind Madrid, which has grown by 116,315 inhabitants in the last year; Barcelona, with 82,462 more residents; Valencia (47,607); Alicante (35,924); and Murcia (16,309). In Andalucía, the next province is Almería (9,391 more people), then Granada (4,049 more residents) and Seville (3,666).
31,313 new residents in Andalucía
Of these, almost half are based in Malaga
In the last year, the population of Andalucía gained 31,313 inhabitants, with Malaga contributing practically half of the demographic increase in the region (46%). Andalucía has also suffered a decrease in population in certain areas. On both a regional and national level, the province with the greatest decline is Córdoba, which on 1 January 2025 had 3,336 fewer inhabitants than a year earlier. Meanwhile, Jaén has lost 849 residents in the last year. Other provinces also suffering demographic losses are Badajoz, León, Zaragoza, Zamora and Cáceres.
Back to Malaga, the increase in the province's population in relative terms is 0.81%, placing it somewhat below the increase recorded at national level (0.94%). The biggest increase in the country was recorded by Castellón: its 11,480 new residents represent an increase of 1.87%. The largest increase in Andalucía was recorded in Almería: its 9,391 new residents in 2024 imply a growth of 1.23%.
In relative terms, Córdoba remains the province that experienced the greatest loss, where the population decreased by 0.43% in 2024.
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Esta funcionalidad es exclusiva para registrados.
Reporta un error en esta noticia
Comentar es una ventaja exclusiva para registrados
¿Ya eres registrado?
Inicia sesiónNecesitas ser suscriptor para poder votar.