Malaga province's population continues to grow, according to revised national data

It seems to have been a false alarm. Spain's population survey published in May with data as of 1 April 2025 reflected a demographic decline for Malaga province. It was just 639 people or 0.035%, but it was significant as it was the first population drop in the province since these statistics began to be published quarterly (since 2021). However, if one were to look further back, to the period when the INE national statistics institute counted the number of residents only every six months, this would be the first population loss since 2018, specifically in the first half of that year, when the province's demographics fell by 921 inhabitants, from 1,650,068 to 1,649,147.

The figures published this Thursday by the INE revise previous figures and refute the demographic decline reported in the previous run of this quarterly population survey. The INE itself always reports that its data is provisional for a certain period of time - to be precise, all those published since 1 April 2024. With each new publication of these statistics, the INE releases the data for a new reference date and corrects the previous series.

The new figures show that, on 1 April 2025, there were 4,155 more inhabitants in Malaga province than on 1 January, not 639 fewer. Adding to this growth is the increase recorded in the second quarter of this year, which the INE provisionally estimates at 1,883 inhabitants. This brings the province's population to 1,798,265 inhabitants as of 1 July. This also means that, compared to the figure from a year earlier, the population increase is 14,451. Thus far this year, the number of residents in the province has risen by just over 6,000.

This population increase recorded in these three periods is due in all three to the arrival of foreigners, as the number of Spanish-born residents in Malaga is decreasing. Let's take it step by step. If there are 1,883 more inhabitants on 1 July 2025 than on 1 April, it is because there are 2,054 more foreigners, who have offset the loss of 171 Spaniards. Meanwhile, if the increase so far this year is 6,038 residents, it is because the increase of 6,348 foreigners has offset the decrease of 310 in the local population. Similarly, if in 12 months the growth is 14,451 individuals, it is because people born outside of Spain have compensated for the loss of 75 inhabitants of Spanish origin.

Malaga is the sixth most populated province in Spain after Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Seville. However, it is 14th in terms of population growth in the second quarter of this year. Almeria, for example, is ahead of it in Andalucía, where the number of inhabitants grew by 3,165. Curiously, in the province of Seville, the number of residents barely increased by 246 in the quarter. The worst-performing demographic, not only in Andalucía, but in all of Spain, is Cordoba, which lost 1,116 residents in the second quarter and 2,772 in 12 months (0.14% and 0.35% of its population respectively).

In relative terms, population growth in Malaga province in the last quarter is 0.10%, which is below the population increase recorded in Spain as a whole (0.24%). The country attained 49,315,949 inhabitants as of 1 July this year, which is 119,811 more than on 1 April 2025. Compared to data from 12 months ago, the national increase is more than half a million people (slightly more than 1%, a variation also higher than that recorded in Malaga, which is limited to 0.81%).

As of 1 July, the population of Malaga province is made up of 1.36 million people born in Spain and another 437,458 born overseas. This means that foreigners represent 24.3% of the total population. This is nearly five points more than the Spanish average of 19.64%, given that there are 9.68 million foreigners out of a total population of 49.315 million residents and citizens.

The province with the highest proportion of foreign population as of 1 July 2025 is Alicante (29.7%), followed by the Balearic Islands (28.7%) and Girona (27.6%). In fourth place is Almeria at 25.6%, given that nearly 200,000 of its 777,156 inhabitants were born in other countries. Also ahead of Malaga are Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Barcelona, Madrid and Lleida.

The survey also reports on the geographic origins of the people who migrated to Malaga in the second quarter of this year. The leading source was Argentina (880), followed by Colombia and Morocco with 770 each.

However, there are also people who leave Malaga. In the second quarter, 390 went to Morocco, 370 to the United Kingdom and another 330 to other provinces in Spain.