Malaga beats the population trend

WHILE on a national level Spain is losing population due to low birth rates and the effects of the financial crisis, in Malaga Province figures continue to rise.
They have been doing so for the last few years, but in 2014 it became the province that gained the most inhabitants in the whole country, followed at a distance by the Balearic Islands and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The latest data revealed by the INE National Statistics Institute showed that last year 1,632,949 people lived in Malaga, 13,236 more than in 2013.
The figure is impressive, especially considering the fact that Spain as a whole lost 72,335 inhabitants during the same period. In fact, the province gained more residents than all of the rest of Andalucia put together.
But just why is Malaga gaining population? Alfredo Ruiz, a former Malaga University Geography professor, said it was hard to sum up thousands of individual decisions but said that the area’s current growth was attracting people both from other European countries and from the rest of Spain.