Mijas, Alhaurín de la Torre, Cártama and Casares: Malaga's new population nuclei

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Many municipalities in the interior of the province are gaining residents from other parts of Spain, in contrast to the losses coastal towns are suffering

Cristina Vallejo

Thursday, 2 April 2026, 10:01

The municipalities in Malaga province that are gaining population from other parts of Spain or that have a positive internal migration balance are not the usual suspects: the coastal and most populous ones. Instead, many are interior towns.

SUR analyses the towns that attract residents from other parts of the country, whether from within the province of Malaga, from the Andalusian region or from anywhere else in Spain, which is called internal migration.

The only coastal exception is Mijas, which in 2024 (the last year for which there is official data) gained 531 net residents. Net is the difference between those who moved to the municipality from another part of Spain and those who left to go elsewhere in the country. Mijas is also among the most populous municipalities in the province, with its 95,000 inhabitants.

While Mijas has the best internal migration balance in absolute numbers, this is not the case in relative terms, because the population increase resulting from the absorption of people from other areas of Spain is limited to 0.57%, compared to 0.9% for Alhaurín de la Torre (44,000 inhabitants), which gained 400 residents.

Cártama

The figures are even better for other towns in the province of Malaga. Cártama, for example, (with nearly 29,000 inhabitants in 2024) saw an increase of 340 residents thanks to internal migration, representing a 1.17% increase.

Casares, on the other hand, received a net gain of 253 people from other parts of Spain in 2024, which contributed almost 3% to its population of around 8,500. Coín also added more than 200 residents as a result of internal migration, representing a population growth of 0.85%. Alhaurín el Grande gained 178 inhabitants, a 0.65% increase. Other municipalities with net migration gains of more than 100 residents in 2024 include Rincón de la Victoria, Pizarra, Guaro, Álora, Algarrobo, Torrox and Villanueva del Trabuco.

Among all these, the one for which internal migration has had the greatest impact is Guaro: the 143 new residents it gained in 2024 represent a 5.8% increase to its population of approximately 2,500. For Algarrobo and Villanueva del Trabuco, the population increase was around 2%, while for Pizarra it was almost 1.5%. Álora saw a gain of less than 1% and the increase in Torrox and Rincón was around 0.5%.

Although the increases in absolute terms were smaller in municipalities such as Almogía, Villanueva del Rosario, Fuente de Piedra, Totalán, Cútar and Árchez, the arrival of people from other parts of Spain led to demographic growth that reached or even exceeded 2% in a single year. Meanwhile, in Tolox, Benamocarra, Casabermeja, Benamargosa and Macharaviaya, the increase surpassed 1.5%.

Where does the key to the population growth of these interior municipalities lie? According to research geographer Juan José Natera published a few weeks ago, the census tracts corresponding to the municipalities that extend across the Guadalhorce Valley and the area around Rincón de la Victoria are absorbing the unmet housing demand in the city of Malaga. In other words, those who cannot find a home in Malaga are moving to a town in these surrounding areas. These are not necessarily low-income individuals and many have budgets large enough to buy in the city, but the quality and size of properties available in other municipalities are more worth the price.

Loss of residents

Contrary to what happens in the municipalities in Malaga that increase their population, there are others for which the internal migration balance is negative. To begin with, there is Marbella, which 1,511 more people left in 2024 than arrived in, resulting in a loss of 0.95%. The population of Marbella in 2024 was 159,000 inhabitants. The internal migration balance was also negative in Malaga city: as a result of movements within Spain, the Costa del Sol capital lost 1,349 residents or 0.22% of its total population of just over 591,000.

Other coastal towns that lost more people than saw arriving from within Spain were Benalmádena (with a negative balance of 664 residents in 2024, which meant a loss of 0.85% of its population), Fuengirola (478 fewer inhabitants or a loss of 0.55%), Torremolinos (a decrease of 383 people in absolute terms or 0.54% of the population in relative terms) and Nerja (157 residents and 0.7%).

The biggest drops

Two municipalities in Malaga, however, lost more than 5% of their population due to internal migration. These are Igualeja (a net loss of 40 inhabitants or a 5.2% decrease, as its population is fewer than 800 residents) and Genalguacil (a net loss of 23 inhabitants or a 5.8% drop, with a population of approximately 400).

Significant population declines due to internal migration were also recorded in 2024 in Atajate (-6.95%) and Alpandeire (-5%), although these have very small populations and any slight increase or decrease significantly impacts the percentage changes. What is happening in these villages is perhaps more related to the depopulation of rural areas further from the city - a process also occurring in much of central Spain.

International migration offsets moves to other parts of Spain

Many of the municipalities with negative internal migration perform far better when it comes to the number of settling foreigners.

Malaga, for example, is the municipality that gained the most thanks to cross-border migration: a total of 8,065 residents, representing a 1.36% increase. In relative terms, the attraction of residents is most significant in Marbella and Benalmádena, given that their positive external migration balances of 3,118 and 1,502 people, respectively, represent an injection of almost 2%.

Mijas, Torremolinos and Estepona also gained over 1,000 new foreign residents in 2024. Vélez-Málaga, Coín and Benahavís gained between 400 and 500. These three towns, along with Mijas, have both positive net migration from abroad and from within Spain. Social movements like Málaga para Vivir and Sindicato de Inquilinas attribute this to a displacement of low-income residents by high-income residents, regardless of whether they are Spanish or foreign.

The loss of residents due to international immigration not offsetting emigration to other countries is negligible. Fuengirola is the municipality with the most negative balance, resulting in a decrease of just 98 residents, followed by Alhaurín el Grande (-82) and Genalguacil (-12).