How many Brits live on the Costa del Sol?

This question is almost impossible to answer with any real degree of accuracy. Depending on the source the figures differ. The official census of the province of Malaga reports over 70,000 foreign residents. In this figure there are many British residents but this figure only reports those who have actually bothered to register with the authorities. If new arrivals do not register, they will not be counted.

There are other figures, which report that there are already 1.2 million British homeowners in Spain with a further 600,000 planning to buy a second home here in the next five years. Within this figure there are many living in Malaga and Cadiz provinces. Whatever figure you accept there are a lot of British residents already here, and many planning to relocate in the future.

It is interesting to note, also, that whereas in the past most Brits relocating to the Costa del Sol were retiring to Spain to live in the sun, the Ministry of the Interior in Malaga now reports that the average age of the foreign residents in the province is 45 and has been dropping very fast during the last few years. More and more people are choosing to leave the UK and actually work and bring up their families in an environment that is potentially much better.

This in itself raises many more questions. It is one thing to retire or semi-retire to the sun but it is much more difficult to decide to relocate your family from one country to another in order to build a new life. I hope you will find the answers to most of your questions in the following pages. Not only is the Costa del Sol potentially a wonderful place to live – it is also potentially a wonderful place in which to bring up your family.