MANILVA – How attractive Malaga is as a place to live and settle for new residents is again shown by the official statistics. It is the second province in Spain with the highest population growth.
Malaga has grown by no less than 670,000 inhabitants since 1981. This is evident from the publication of the National Institute of Statistics (INE) on the population and housing censuses for 2021. In this, the province appears as the second area in Spain with the highest growth in the number of inhabitants.
The number of inhabitants of the province of Malaga in 2021 has increased by 6.4% compared to 2021. The census will be further supplemented in February and June 2023 with other variables, such as new data on the population and households and housing.
In absolute terms, the province had a population of 1,696,955 in 2021. That is 102,147 more than ten years ago. But what if we compare the data to the pre-2011 censuses? In 2001 Malaga had a population of 1,287,017 at the census; in 1991 there were 1,160,843, and in 1981, 1,025,629. According to these values, the province has gained 671,326 people over the past 40 years.
Balearic Islands saw the biggest population growth
A value surpassed only by the Balearic Islands, with a growth of 7.5%, and above Almería, third in population growth, with 6.1%. Provinces at the other end of the list that have lost the most inhabitants this decade are Zamora (-11.7%), Cuenca (-8.7%) and León (-8.3%).
Related: Huge interest in Malaga housing market reconfirmed
Update censuses
This publication is part of INE’s ambitious effort to update housing and population censuses. The organisation emphasises that the 2021 census is based on a combination of data from dozens of administrative services. Previous censuses conducted in Spain since the 19th century was based on information gathered through interviews with households.
Annual update
With this, Spain joins a small group of European countries that base their demographic censuses on these sources. In addition, the census is no longer a decade-long publication that has been running continuously since 1857. The next edition in 2022 will start with an annual periodicity.
Manilva is among the Spanish municipalities with the highest growth
In more detail, the analysis shows that of the 20 municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants with the highest relative population growth between 2011 and 2021 in Spain, only one is in the province of Malaga. That is Manilva in 17th place. The registered growth rate in the last decade is 24.7%. This is comparable to that of municipalities such as Villanueva de la Cañada (Madrid, 25%), and Egüés (Madrid, 24.7%). %), Illescas (Toledo, 24.6%) or Sant Just Desvern (Barcelona, 23.8%). Within this ranking, Arroyomolinos (Madrid) is at the top, with a growth of more than 50%.
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