NEW census figures for Malaga province show major shifts in the foreign population – but is it enough to unseat the Brits as top dog in their long-held position as the biggest expat community?
The latest data confirms that the more Brits have left the province than arrived for the second year in a row – but they still remain top, with quite a bit of breathing space.
Several other nationalities are growing rapidly, but with Italians being the only European nationality in the mix.
The fastest risers are the Colombians, Moroccans, Paraguayans, and Venezuelans, who have all recorded significant increases in the last year.
According to the new yearly census from Spain’s national statistics office (INE), Malaga province added 16,482 residents in 2024, taking the population to 1,791,183.
Foreigners accounted for 77% of that growth, meaning that over seven out of every ten new arrivals came from abroad.
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In total, 341,229 residents are foreign nationals, equating to 19% of the province’s population.
While Britons remain the largest group with 49,298 people, the latest count shows a fall of 1,531 compared with the previous year.
The next largest groups are Moroccans, now at 36,438 (up roughly 4%), and Italians, at 21,549 (up about 6%), followed by Colombians with 18,973 (up around 16%).
A bevy of South American countries follow next.
Paraguayans stand at 11,582 (up about 14%), Venezuelans at 10,119 (up roughly 13%), and Argentines 14,346 (up around 7%).
Several European groups also remain strong, including Germans (11,369) and Romanians (11,287), while Ukraine and Russia saw declines of 389 and 107 respectively.
Foreigners overall increased by 3.7%, compared to a rise of just 0.2% for Spanish nationals.
The province has added 94,228 residents in the last five years, a growth of 5.2% – driven overwhelmingly by international migration.
Malaga city now has 597,173 residents, up 4,823 in a year, though this represents a slowdown compared to previous increases.
Marbella remains the second-largest municipality with 166,478 residents – a yearly jump of 4.4% – now more than 9% of the entire provincial population.
Other large coastal towns also continue to grow, including Mijas (94,320), Velez-Malaga (87,798), Estepona (79,593) and Torremolinos (71,270), while Fuengirola saw a slight decline of 0.6%, the second-biggest drop in Spain.
Medium-sized towns between 20,000 and 50,000 residents now hold 30.6% of the provincial population, with increases across Alhaurin de la Torre, Alhaurin el Grande, Antequera, Cartama, Coin, Ronda, Torrox and Nerja — the last of which was the only town in this group to register a small fall.
At the other extreme, just 0.3% of the population lives in villages with fewer than 500 people, mostly in the Serrania de Ronda and interior Axarquia.
The full dataset suggests that while Britons remain the dominant expat group in Malaga province, the margin is narrowing — and faster-growing nationalities may begin closing the gap if current trends continue.
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