Both the top and bottom municipalities by average individual income in Andalucía can be found in Malaga province

Nuria Triguero

Malaga

Saturday, 5 October 2024, 07:42 | Updated 08:05h.

Benahavís, yet again, has been declared as the wealthiest municipality not only in Malaga province, but in the whole Andalucía region. The Costa del Sol town, home to one of the most exclusive residential developments in Spain (Coto Zagaleta), saw its average per capita income reduced in 2022 by 5.2% compared to the previous year, but even so its 39,787 euros per year average still allow it to top the leaderboard. This has come to light from the published statistics on personal income tax returns lodged by municipality for the year 2022 that were only released this week by the national tax agency (AEAT). With this drop in its average income, Benahavís has dropped out of the ranking of the 50 wealthiest municipalities in the country, going from 40th to 71st position.

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In second position in the list of municipalities with the highest average gross income in Malaga province is still Rincón de la Victoria with 32,546 euros per year, a figure that represents an increase of 5.4% over the previous year. The increase in Marbella is much more striking - 10.6% - although it makes no difference to its position in the ranking, still in third place at 31,614 euros per year. However, keep in mind that Marbella has been increasing its per capita income by more than 10% for the last two years, which may be related to the continuous arrival of new residents with high purchasing power to this municipality post-pandemic.

In fourth position in the provincial ranking is Alhaurín de la Torre at 29,832 euros, an increase of 5.6%. Malaga city does move up one place, going from sixth to fifth after increasing its per capita income by 5.7% in 2022 to 29,191 euros.

The next five municipalities in Malaga with the highest average gross income per person are Benalmádena, Torremolinos, Estepona, Casares and Istán.

As a whole Malaga province increased its per capita income by 6% in 2022 to 27,131 euros per year. With this increase, which is higher than the average (national average income grew by 4.8%), it overtakes Seville (which remains at 25,999 euros) and becomes the wealthiest Andalusian province. In the national ranking too it has moved up from 23rd to 20th place.

Some may recall that it was not Benahavís but Alhaurín de la Torre that topped the provincial ranking of the richest municipalities. It's not that the ranking has changed, it's that the list that Benahavís tops is drawn up by AEAT while the one that Alhaurín leads is drawn up by Spain's national statistics institute (INE). They are different because they are calculated in different ways, although they take the same tax data as their source. The tax authority divides total income declared by each municipality by the number of tax returns lodged, while the INE divides total income by the total population residing in households in each place.

At the other end of the tax revenue ranking there is a change of municipality: Benamargosa replaces Almáchar as the municipality with the lowest average income in the province. Its average per capita income fell by 1.5% compared to 2021 and stands at 14,472 euros per year, the only municipality in the province that remains below 15,000 euros. It is also the only municipality in Malaga to be among the twenty poorest in Spain. So what about Almáchar? Well, its average income has risen by 9.5% to 15,389 euros per year. It should be noted that in the places with few taxpayers (Benamargosa has 762 and Almáchar has 963), income fluctuations are more pronounced.

The gap between the richest and poorest towns in the province narrowed in 2022: the average taxpayer in Benahavís earned 2.7 times as much money as one in Benamargosa, whereas in the previous year the ratio stood at 3. The next villages with the lowest average income in Malaga province are Almáchar, Comares, Valle de Abdalajís and Villanueva de Algaidas.

AEAT's statistics on personal income tax returns filed by municipality is compiled with data from more than 22 million tax returns from 7,606 municipalities that do not include the Basque Country or Navarre.

As the national tax agency explained: "It should be noted that the information declared in a person's personal income tax return refers to the total income received in the year of accrual by all the members of a family unit. Therefore, the average income per return cannot be interpreted either as individual income or as income per household or family in the strict sense, as it will depend on the type of return (individual or joint) chosen. However, the statistics include as additional information the total number of taxpayers (one in individual and joint single-parent tax returns, two in joint married tax returns) to approximate the total number of adult taxpayers."