Nine out of ten new residents in Malaga province were born outside Spain

One of the reasons for the economic dynamism of Malaga province is population growth. More inhabitants tends to lead to more GDP. And the boom in activity also attracts new residents to the province who move here to work, as well as to enjoy the good weather in their retirement years.

According to figures from the continuous population survey carried out by the National Statistics Institute (INE) the population of the province increased by 1.5%, from 1.73 million residents to 1.76 million between July 2022 and July 2023.

In absolute numbers, on 1 July 2023 there were 26,181 more inhabitants in Malaga than a year earlier. Of these, 23,230 were born outside Spain, bringing the total number of foreign-born people living in the province to almost 400,000. This means that almost 89% of the increase in population recorded in the last year is due to foreign residents.

In the same period, the expansion of the Andalusian population as a whole has lagged slightly behind that of the province of Malaga, as its growth has been limited to 0.65%. The increase in the number of residents in the region has been half that of the country as a whole: in Spain the number of residents has increased by 1.12% in the last twelve months, to 48.3 million from 47.8 million in July 2022.

More foreigners and nationals

The population in Malaga province is therefore growing at a faster rate than in Andalucía and in Spain as a whole. But there is also another differential element in the provincial, regional and national growth rates.

In Malaga the local Spanish population also rose by almost 3,000 in the last year. Meanwhile, in Andalucía, the population growth last year of more than 55,000 inhabitants was entirely due to foreign-born people, who have increased their numbers to 61,913, while the Spanish-born population fell by more than 6,500 inhabitants.

On a national level across Spain there are 84,000 fewer residents born in Spain and 621,734 more residents born abroad, which has meant that the number of inhabitants has grown by more than half a million, to exceed 48.3 million in total.

Meanwhile the number of residents in Malaga province is growing strongly above the Spanish average. It is one of the only two Andalusian provinces where this is the case; Almeria has grown by 1.31%. These two provinces, in which there is an increase in both the national and foreign populations, are helping to sustain the rise in the number of residents in the region.

84,000 fewer Spanish-born residents in Spain.

The drop is compensated by the arrival of more than 620,000 people from other countries

Falling populations

Other provinces are much less dynamic. Two areas of the region have experienced losses in the number of residents: in Cordoba the fall is 0.22% from 774,101 to 772,431 inhabitants; while in Jaén the drop is approximately 0.5%, from almost 622,700 to fewer than 620,000 residents. What is happening in Cordoba and Jaén is that the increase in the foreign-born population is not compensating for the fall in the number of Spanish-born residents.

The rest of Andalucía’s provinces recorded population growth, but at less than one per cent. In Granada the increase is 0.82%, which puts it on the road to one million inhabitants, thanks to the contribution of both nationals and foreigners. In Seville province the rise is 0.56%, bringing the number of residents close to two million, despite the slight fall in the number of national residents in the last twelve months.

In Cadiz and Huelva, the population gain is limited to 0.3%, exclusively due to the foreign-born population.

In Spain as a whole, Malaga province is in tenth place in terms of population growth in the last year. It is surpassed by three provinces in Valencia, which have recorded increases in the number of residents of around 2%; three provinces in Catalonia, Barcelona, Girona and Tarragona; as well as the Balearic Islands and Madrid.

Source: Sur, August 2023