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Malaga population surpasses 1.8 million as foreign-born residents drive 95% of growthThe province is now the second fastest-growing in Andalucía, though the rate of expansion has slowed significantly since the post-pandemic boom
Málaga
Thursday, 12 February 2026, 14:36
Malaga continues to be among the provinces with the highest population gains in Spain, although it is no longer in first place, as it was in 2021.
Its population growth has moderated and in 2025 it was ninth in the national ranking and second in the Andalusian ranking, adding 13,922 inhabitants, allowing it to surpass a new threshold: 1.8 million residents.
Specifically, on 1 January 2026 there were 1,805,105 people living in the province, according to the provisional figures published quarterly by the national statistics institute.
Virtually all the population growth recorded in Malaga in 2025 (95 per cent) is explained by the foreign-born population. In fact, the increase in the native population in this last year was only 651 people.
The province is now home to 446,185 residents with a foreign place of birth. This figure should not be confused with nationality, as just over a fifth of these foreign-born people (96,259) are full Spanish citizens, having acquired Spanish nationality. The number of residents of foreign nationality living in the province on 1 January was 349,926.
Compared to the demographic boom that Malaga has experienced since the pandemic, 2025 has seen a modest increase in population.
In 2022, for example, the province added more than 37,000 inhabitants, more than double that of the previous year; in 2023 it was almost 22,000 and in 2024, more than 16,000.
In the light of these developments, it could be interpreted that population growth is slowing down in the province. There is even a temptation to be alarmed by the fall of just over 2,000 inhabitants recorded in the last quarter of 2025, which places Malaga as the province with the greatest loss of population in that period.
However, this figure should be treated with caution, as the statistics are provisional and variations tend to occur in the final count.
What is certain is that this loss of steam in Malaga's population growth has caused it to lose its Andalusian leadership in the last year. Seville is the province that leads the region in terms of population growth in 2025, with 16,937 inhabitants.
This is followed by Malaga with its almost 14,000 and then Almeria (+11,466), Granada (+8,763), Cadiz (+4,608) Huelva (+3,025), and Jaén (+723). Cordoba is the only province that decreased; in fact, it was the province that lost the most residents in Spain last year: 2,655.
Spain and Andalusia
As for Spain, it reached 49,570,725 inhabitants on 1 January 2026: an all-time record that brings us closer to the milestone of 50 million. In the last year, the estimated population growth was 442,428 people.
An increase that was due to the increase in foreign-born people, as the number of people born in Spain decreased. This foreign-born population exceeded 10 million for the first time and was larger than the foreign-born population, due to the process of acquiring Spanish nationality.
In Andalucía, the population increased by 56,822 people over 2025, reaching 8,733,535. It was the fourth most populated autonomous community in Spain, behind Valenciana, Catalonia and Madrid.