This is how Malaga's business landscape has changed in the last decade and these are the sectors that are booming

The pace of business creation in Malaga is now much more upbeat than it was ten years ago. Between January and April 2025, some 2,539 trading companies were set up in the province, according to the latest data released on Monday by the Juntas de Andalucía's institute of statistics and cartography (IECA). This figure is 35% above that for the same period in 2015, when new companies numbered 1,880. Thus, while ten years ago an average of 470 companies were established monthly, the current rate is much more robust, because on average there are 635 new companies each month.

Business dynamism is now greater than it was ten years ago in the area which includes the Costa del Sol, but if we look more closely at the picture by sector, we see that this is not the case for all: there has been a slight change of bias in Malaga's productive fabric, in how it grows and in which areas it is developing most rapidly. For instance, in some activities such as agriculture and construction, fewer companies are being set up than ten years ago. In contrast, among the sectors where company start-ups have increased, some rises are rather discreet - as with the education sector - and then there are some that have really taken off, such as in logistics, real estate and hotels. Let's take a closer look.

Among the economic activities in which Malaga has lost traction is, perhaps surprisingly, construction. Between January and April 2025 the number of construction companies starting up was limited to 332, compared to 561 in the same period a decade earlier, which implies a drop of 40%. This sector includes companies in both buildings construction and civil engineering specialists.

Another of the sectors that has also reduced its importance in Malaga's business fabric is agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing, in other words, those related to the primary sector. While in the first four months of 2015, 33 new companies were created in this sector, a decade later the figure is limited to 26, which implies a decrease of 21%.

These two activities, construction and agriculture, have been the two that have lost out on the growth in business creation in Malaga. All other sectors are on an upward trend, although some have jumped onboard the growth train more decisively than others. It has become a mantra, but one of the most popular sectors right now is logistics, that is, those companies that rely on transport and warehousing to operate. Business creation in this sector has reached almost 100 in the first four months of this year, which is practically triple the figure for the same period in 2015, when three new companies were formed.

Furthermore, tourism has also experienced spectacular growth in recent years, a fact reflected in the number of new businesses. Overall, the hospitality sector, which in 2015 created 202 new companies over the four-month period, now sees the birth of 329, an increase of 63%. This sector can be broken down into companies dedicated to accommodation services and those dedicated to catering. Growth is concentrated primarily among the former, which have more than tripled, rising from 21 companies created between January and April 2015 to 72 during the same period this year. Meanwhile, new bars and restaurants number 257 this year, 42% more than the 181 in 2015.

At the same time, business start-ups in the commercial sector have risen, but only slightly, from 357 new names between January and April 2015 to 390 this year.

Another economic activity that has gained significant prominence in Malaga in the last decade has been information and communications, mainly due to its technological component. This is evident in the figures: the rate of business creation has doubled, from 52 in 2015 to 101 in 2025.

There has also been a sector that has subtly, almost sotto voce, extended its presence in the expansion of the productive landscape of Malaga province. Here, the number of new companies has more than quadrupled. Between January and April 2015, the number of new names registered did not reach 30. A decade later, in those same four months, there were 127 new companies. This is the sector that brings together banking and insurance.

However, no sector can beat the queen bee of company start-ups in Malaga and that is the real estate sector. In the first four months of this year its inventory has grown by 483 companies, more than doubling the four-month tally for 2015, when the number of companies incorporated was limited to 215.

The data have yielded a surprise in another sector, that of industry. Its rate of business creation is currently higher than it was a decade ago: the four-month figure in 2015 of 56 new companies is surpassed by the 91 this year, up 62.5%.

Out of interest, let us also look at what has happened in two sectors that compete with the public sector: education and health. In the former, 34 new companies were set up in the first four months of this year, compared to 32 in the same period in 2015. The latter has also taken on 54 new companies in 2025 compared to 30 a decade earlier.