Lorraine Williamson
Spain is edging closer to a headline figure that would have sounded improbable a decade ago: almost 50 million residents. But the more revealing story is not the national total. It’s where the growth is landing — and why the same places keep feeling more crowded, more expensive, and more stretched.
The latest official estimate from Spain’s statistics office, INE, puts the resident population at 49,570,725 people on 1 January 2026. That is the highest figure in the series, and it follows an increase of 81,520 people in the final quarter of 2025, with annual growth estimated at 442,428.
The milestone inside the milestone: 10 million people born abroad
INE’s release includes another historic marker: Spain has passed 10 million residents born outside the country for the first time. In other words, migration is not a footnote to the population story — it is driving it.
The same figures point to Colombian, Venezuelan, and Moroccan nationals as the leading nationalities among new arrivals in the final quarter of 2025.
RTVE, reporting on the data, puts the share of foreigners in Spain at 14.6% and frames the growth as being sustained by people arriving from abroad.
Why it feels tighter in the places people actually live
This is where the “Spain is growing” headline starts to mislead. Population growth is not being distributed evenly. It’s stacking in the same high-demand corridors: big cities, the Mediterranean coast, and the islands.
El País has dubbed this trend “la España apretada” — a country where a growing share of residents, jobs, and tourism concentrates in a small slice of territory, while much of the interior continues to lose people or age rapidly. The report highlights the knock-on effects: housing scarcity, packed transport networks, and pressure on basic services.
For readers in Andalucía — and particularly on the Costa del Sol — the point lands quickly. Growth does not just mean more neighbours. It means rising demand for rental homes, school places, GP appointments, water infrastructure, and reliable transport links.
The regional winners in the latest data
INE says the largest population increases in the last quarter of 2025 were in Comunitat Valenciana, Castilla-La Mancha, and the Community of Madrid. The national picture is important, but so are the micro-pressures: a town or city can feel “over capacity” long before the country does.
What this means for Málaga province, in plain terms
Málaga’s attraction isn’t new. But the combination of economic pull, lifestyle migration, remote work, and record tourism has tightened the screws. When growth lands in places already facing housing shortages and infrastructure strain, it shows up as everyday friction: fewer long-term rentals, longer commutes, and public services that feel permanently in catch-up mode.
The uncomfortable truth is that Spain’s demographic “success story” and its affordability crisis can rise at the same time — because they are linked by geography.
The next question: how Spain manages growth, not whether it grows
Spain’s population isn’t rising because of a post-pandemic baby boom. It’s rising because Spain has become a destination for work and stability — and because migration is now the main engine keeping the country from shrinking.
Spain´s migrant regularisation plan
The debate that follows will not be about the number alone. It will be about policy choices: housing supply, transport investment, and whether growth can be steered beyond the usual magnets so that “España apretada” stops feeling like the only Spain that counts.