Population growth in Spain has been increasingly driven by migration in recent years, and new data from Spain’s national stats body reveals just where people are going.
New census data has revealed the Spanish cities that experienced the highest population growth in the last year, with traditional tourist hotspots leading the way.
According to the Annual Population Census published on Tuesday by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), the resident population on 1 January 2025 stood at 49,128,297 people, 508,602 more than on the same date in 2024, which represents an increase of around 1 percent.
Of the 49.1 million inhabitants recorded in the census, 42.2 million were Spanish nationals (85.9 percent) and 6.9 million were foreign nationals (14.1 percent), which is 6.3 percent more than the previous year.
READ ALSO: Spain’s population reaches record 49.4 million thanks to immigration
The resident population in Spain grew in all regions of the country except Extremadura, particularly in Mediterranean coastal towns well-known among tourists and foreigners.
Perhaps this is unsurprising as Spain’s population growth in recent years has itself been driven by migration, with demographic trends meaning foreigners in the country are making up a larger and larger proportion of the population.
According to INE data, the towns of Torrevieja (+4.9 percent), Gandía (+3.6 percent) and Benidorm (+3.5 percent) were the Spanish cities with the highest population growth last year, three long established tourist destinations in the popular southeastern corner of the country.
L’Hospitalet de Llobregat in Catalonia, Lanzarote’s capital of Arrecife in the Canary Islands, Colmenar Viejo and Valdemoro in Madrid, Elda in Alicante, Ibiza Town in the Balearics and Granadilla de Abona in Tenerife completed the top ten positions for the municipalities with the largest population increases.
The largest declines were in Cádiz (-1 percent), Fuengirola in Málaga (-0.9 percent) and Talavera de la Reina in Toledo (-0.9 percent).
Advertisement
On a regional level, the largest increases were in Catalonia (+111,895) the Valencian Community (+105,897) and Madrid (+104,618).
Spanish press agency EFE notes that in relative terms, however, the largest increases were in the Valencian Community (+2 percent) and in Madrid and the Balearic Islands (+1.5 percent increases in both).
The provinces with the highest growth were Castellón, Alicante and Guadalajara (+2 percent in all three), while the largest decreases were recorded in Zamora (-0.4 percent), Córdoba and Jaén (-0.1 percent in both).
READ ALSO: Spain’s population keeps increasing due to immigration
