Málaga (; Spanish: [ˈmalaɣa] ⓘ) is a municipality of Spain and the capital of the province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 597,173 in 2025, it is the 2nd-largest city in Andalusia and the 6th-largest in the country. It lies in Southern Iberia on the Costa del Sol ('Coast of the Sun') of the Mediterranean, primarily on the left bank of the Guadalhorce. The urban core originally developed in the space between the Gibralfaro Hill and the Guadalmedina.
Málaga's history spans about 2,800 years, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe. According to most scholars, it was founded about 770 BC by the Phoenicians from Tyre as Malaka. From the 6th century BC the city was under the hegemony of Ancient Carthage, and from 218 BC, it was under Roman rule, economically prospering owing to garum production. In the 8th century, after a period of Visigothic and Byzantine rule, it was placed under Islamic rule. In 1487, the Crown of Castile gained control in the midst of the Granada War. In the 19th century, the city underwent a period of industrialisation followed by a decay in all socioeconomic parameters in the last third of the century.
The most important business sectors in Málaga are tourism, construction and technology services, but other sectors such as transportation and logistics are beginning to expand. Málaga has consolidated as a tech hub, with companies mainly concentrated in the Málaga TechPark (Technology Park of Andalusia). It hosts the headquarters of the region's largest bank, Unicaja, and it is the fourth-ranking city in Spain in terms of economic activity. Regarding transportation, Málaga is served by the Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport and the Port of Málaga, and the city was connected to the high-speed railway network in 2007.
History
Phoenicians from Tyre founded a colony named Malake about 770 BC (Punic: 𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤀, mlkʾ). The town controlled access to the Guadalmedina and served as a waypoint on trade routes between Phoenicia and the Strait of Gibraltar. Like other Phoenician colonies, it fell under Carthaginian rule during the 6th or 5th century BC. The Phoenician and Later Roman urban core developed around an area running from the Gibralfaro Hill to the mouth of the Malaca flumen (Guadalmedina).
After the Punic Wars, the Roman Republic took control of the town known to them as Malaca. By the 1st century BC, Strabo alluded to its Phoenician profile, in contrast to the hellenised characteristics of the neighbouring settlement of Mainake.
Transformed into a confederated city, it was under a special law, the Lex Flavia Malacitana. A Roman theatre was built at this time. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it was ruled first by the Visigoths. The city was taken c. 552 by the Byzantine Empire; either Malaca or Carthago Nova possibly then becoming the capital of the province of Spania. The Byzantines restored and expanded the docks, thus consolidating the fishing and trading tradition the city already enjoyed. The city was retaken by the Visigoth King Sisebut in 615. The Islamic conquest of Málaga (rendered as مالقة—Mālaqah—in Arab sources) by Arab and Berber forces took place in 711 or perhaps 713. Following a period of diminished importance during the early stages of the emiral period already in force since before the conquest, Málaga was fully Islamised by the end of the aforementioned period in the wake of Muhammad I's attributed intervention in the urban configuration as a medina.
The consolidation of the city's importance after 930 (under the Caliphate of Córdoba) ran parallel to the diminishing fortune of Archidona, the latter of which Málaga replaced as the capital of the corresponding kura of Rayya. The early 10th-century chronicle of Aḥmad al-Rāzī mentions the vineyards of Málaga, extolling the unparalleled quality of its raisins. In the 11th century, following the unravelling of Umayyad authority across the caliphate, Málaga became a centre of power of the Hammudids, who established a petty kingdom (nominally also a caliphate) in the city, the taifa of Málaga, complemented by the also Hammudid sister dominion in Ceuta across the Strait of Gibraltar. The city was seized away from the Hammudids by the Granadan Zirids in 1056 or 1057, and also underwent an ephemeral spell under the Sevillian Abbadids by 1066 before returning to the former. By the late 11th century, the Zirids lost the city to the North African Almoravids.
The traveller Ibn Battuta, who passed through around 1325, characterised it as "one of the largest and most beautiful towns of Andalusia [uniting] the conveniences of both sea and land, and... abundantly supplied with foodstuffs and fruits". He praised its grapes, figs, and almonds; "its ruby-coloured Murcian pomegranates have no equal in the world." Another exported product was its "excellent gilded pottery". The town's mosque was large, with "exceptionally tall orange trees" in its courtyard.
After the formation of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada in the 13th century, Málaga became a part of it. The export-oriented harbour traded silk fabrics, dry nuts (raisins, almonds and the famous Rayya figs, reportedly exported to as far as China), wine, cutlery, leather and the famous regional lustreware.
In the 15th century, Málaga was the main Nasrid port (followed by Almería), featuring a notable presence of Genoese merchants. It played a role both as stopover of the Atlantic international trade (as part of the routes connecting the Central Mediterranean to the North Atlantic) and as regional trading cog of the Kingdom of Granada. By the last rales of Nasrid rule, the city had a population of about 15,000.
Málaga was seized by Christian forces on 18 August 1487, after a 3-month 11 days siege, in what was the most violent episode of the Granada War. The Muslim inhabitants resisted assaults and artillery bombardments before hunger forced them to surrender; practically the entire remaining population (around 11,000 people) became war captives and were sold into slavery in other Andalusian cities as well as Valencia and Barcelona. The Jewish population was also taken prisoner and held in Carmona, and a ransom was imposed on them, partly covered by their own assets and partly collected through emissaries. Only a minority of around 50 people led by merchant Alí Dordux were allowed to remain in the city.
The city was swiftly repopulated by Christian settlers coming from different locations of the Iberian Peninsula. Málaga became an exporting centre for Andalusia via the link of the city with Antequera and Córdoba, maintaining its trading character despite the nearly complete replacement of the population. The city did not escape a series of typhus fever outbreaks following its annexation to the Crown of Castile.
Following the death of regent Ferdinand the city rose in revolt in 1516 on the occasion of the installment of a new court controlled by the Admiral of Castile. It was only on 2 December 1530 when Málaga was freed from the influence of the Admiralty for good, confirming the privileges granted in the past by the Catholic Monarchs.
As of 1625, Málaga may have had a population of around 36,000.
On 24 August 1704 the indecisive Battle of Málaga, the largest naval battle in the War of the Spanish Succession, took place in the sea south of Málaga.
The city's economy profited from an early industrialisation in the first third of the 19th century and the population steadily increased until the last years of the century, when the population decreased between 1887 and 1897 due to the economic crisis induced by the Phylloxera grapevine pest. The century saw the accumulation of capital in an enriched bourgeoisie class, that invested in the incipient industrial development.
The municipality of Málaga annexed the coastal town of Torremolinos in 1924.
After the coup of July 1936 the government of the Second Republic retained control of Málaga. Its harbour was a base of the Republican navy at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. It suffered heavy bombing by Italian warships which took part in breaking the Republican navy's blockade of Nationalist-held Spanish Morocco and took part in naval bombardment of Republican-held Málaga. After the Battle of Málaga and the Francoist takeover in February 1937, over seven thousand people were killed, as they were trying to flee the city through the road to Almería.
Torremolinos—originally a small coastal town—greatly developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, becoming an international tourist centre. The first gay bar in Spain was opened in Torremolinos in 1962 (and the first lesbian club in 1968), and the place acquired a lively LGBT life, to the point of being described as "the most 'cosmopolitan' and gay-friendly place in all of Spain". Nearly a decade after, in 1971, a police crackdown seeking to curb "offences against public morality and decency" largely put an end to the appeal of the place, only regaining its status as hub of LGBT leisure and tourism after the death of the dictator.
Torremolinos became independent from the municipality of Málaga in September 1988.
Geography
Málaga is located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Costa del Sol (Coast of the Sun) on the northern side of the Alboran Sea (the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea). It lies about 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of the Strait of Gibraltar and about 130 kilometres (81 miles) east of Tarifa (the southernmost point of continental Europe) and about 130 km (81 miles) to the north of Africa.
The Montes de Málaga mountain range (part of the Penibaetic System) is located in the northeast of the municipality. The highest point in the range (and in the municipality) is the Pico Reina, rising up to 1,031 m (3,383 ft) above sea level.
The city centre is located around the mouth of the Guadalmedina and close to the Guadalhorce's mouth (where the airport is located). The Totalán Creek constitutes the eastern boundary of Málaga with the municipality of Rincón de la Victoria.
The Gibralfaro is a 130 m (427 ft) high foothill from which the Gibralfaro Castle and the Alcazaba fortress overlook the city.
Climate
Málaga's climate is a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csa, Trewartha: Csal) with mild winters, during which most of the year's rainfall occurs, and hot summers with very little rainfall. Summer to early-autumn tends to be moderately humid, due to the evaporation of warm water off the adjacent Mediterranean Sea being blown on shore by a sea breeze. This humidity is most pronounced at this time of year as the sea water is at its warmest in relation to the rest of the year. On particularly humid days, which occasionally occurs, the apparent temperature feels higher than the actual temperature would suggest, especially when the wind is light. When the wind is stronger, this effect is lessened somewhat, and the heat feels more manageable. Málaga enjoys plenty of sunshine throughout the year, with an average of about 300 days of sunshine and only about 40–45 with precipitation annually.
Málaga experiences the warmest winters of any European city with a population over 500,000. The average maximum temperature during the day in the period from December to February is 17–18 °C (63–64 °F). During the winter, the Málaga Mountains (Montes de Málaga) block the passage of cold winds from the north. Its average annual temperature is 23.6 °C (74.5 °F) during the day and 14.2 °C (57.6 °F) at night. In the coldest month, January, the temperature ranges from 14 to 20 °C (57 to 68 °F) during the day, 5 to 10 °C (41 to 50 °F) at night and the average sea temperature is 16 °C (61 °F). In the warmest month, August, the temperature ranges from 26 to 34 °C (79 to 93 °F) during the day, above 20 °C (68 °F) at night and the average sea temperature is 23 °C (73 °F).
Large fluctuations in temperature are rare. The highest temperature ever recorded at the airport was 44.2 °C (111.6 °F) on 18 July 1978, equalled on 19 July 2023. In August 1881, the average reported daytime maximum temperature was a record 34.8 °C (94.6 °F). The lowest temperature ever recorded was −3.8 °C (25.2 °F) on 4 February 1954. The highest wind speed ever recorded was on 16 July 1980, measuring 119 km/h (73.94 mph). Snowfall is virtually unknown; since the beginning of the 20th century, Málaga city has only recorded snow on one day, on 2 February 1954.
Annual average relative humidity is 65%, ranging from 58% in June to 72% in December. Yearly sunshine hours average between 2,800 and 3,000 per year, from 5–6 hours of sunshine per day in December to average 11 hours of sunshine per day in July.
At Málaga Airport weather station, annual wind speeds average from 14 km/h (8.70 mph) in December, January and February, to 10 km/h (6.21 mph) in September and October. Atmospheric pressure averages from 1015 mbar in July and August to 1023 mbar in January. Visibility averages either 11 or 12 km in all months. The strongest gust of wind recorded at this station was 130 km/h (80.78 mph) on 27 January 1948 at 02:30. On 12 December 2023, Málaga broke Spain's and Europe's all-time December temperature record, setting a new record of 29.9 °C (85.8 °F) at the AEMET station of Málaga and 29.6 °C (85.3 °F) at the airport of Málaga.
Demographics
As of 2025, the population is 597,173, of which 48.0% are males, and 52.0% are females. Minors make up 16.5% of the population, and seniors make up 19.4%.
Immigration
As of 2025, immigrants make up 16.8% of the population. The 5 largest foreign countries of birth are Morocco, Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay, and Venezuela.
The number of resident foreign nationals has risen significantly in Málaga since the 1970s.