Benalmádena vs Marbella
Two municipalities in Málaga, Spain, side by side on the five things this site grades — climate & hazards, local vitality, services, affordability and property market. Every figure comes from official open data, and the ones that cannot honestly be compared are marked rather than quietly averaged.
Pillar by pillar
| Pillar | Benalmádena | Marbella |
|---|---|---|
| Climate & hazards | 66/100 | 87/100 ▲ |
| Local vitality | 92/100 ▲ | 91/100 |
| Services & access | 92/100 ▲ | 87/100 |
| Affordability | 3/100 ▲ | 0/100 |
| Property market | 77/100 ▲ | 76/100 |
Pillar scores are percentile ranks within each municipality's own country, so a 70 in Spain and a 70 in Italy each mean "ahead of 70% of this country's towns" — not that the two places are alike.
The underlying figures
| Indicator | Benalmádena | Marbella |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 78,338 inhab. (2025) | 159,786 inhab. (2025) |
| Population trend (~10y) | +17.6% (2015→2025) growing / stable | +14.5% (2015→2025) growing / stable |
| Price (€/m²) | 3,761 €/m² ▲ | 4,333 €/m² |
| Price appreciation (~5y) | +12.8%/yr measured for this municipality · 2021→2026 | +11.9%/yr measured for this municipality · 2021→2026 |
| Gross rental yield | 3.2% ▲ est. from SERPAVI rent ÷ price · 2024 data | 2.7% est. from SERPAVI rent ÷ price · 2024 data |
| Tourism / short-let potential | 199.9 beds / 1,000 inhab. INE tourist-dwelling census | 228 beds / 1,000 inhab. ▲ INE tourist-dwelling census |
| Foreign residents | 25.96% (2022) | 27.3% (2022) ▲ |
| Everyday essentials | 4 of 4 in the municipality pharmacy, supermarket, school, doctor | 4 of 4 in the municipality pharmacy, supermarket, school, doctor |
| International airport | Málaga (AGP) (9.9 km) ▲ | Málaga (AGP) (32.6 km) |
| Wildfire exposure | 0.5% over 30 years (7 detection(s) < 20 km, max FRP 216.6 MW) NASA FIRMS 2012–2025 | 0.4% over 30 years (3 detection(s) < 20 km, max FRP 282.3 MW) ▲ NASA FIRMS 2012–2025 |
| Seismic activity | 0.6% over 30 years (45 quake(s) < 100 km, max M6.3) USGS, since 1960 | 0% over 30 years (37 quake(s) < 100 km, max M5.4) ▲ USGS, since 1960 |
| Tsunami exposure | 6.8% over 30 years (5 recorded tsunami(s) < 20 km, max height 5 m) NOAA, since 1600 | 0% over 30 years (1 recorded tsunami(s) < 20 km, max height 0 m) ▲ 1 with no measured wave height |
Which way each is going
| Population momentum | Benalmádena | Marbella |
|---|---|---|
| Annualised change | +1.62 %/yr 2015–2025 | +1.40 %/yr 2015–2025 |
Demographic momentum is an absolute rate and feeds no grade of its own — see the momentum pages.
How to read this
Grades are computed from official open data — statistics offices, hazard catalogues, land registries and OpenStreetMap — never from reviews, listings or opinion. Each indicator is ranked against the other municipalities of the same country, except the natural hazards, which are absolute 30-year probabilities and therefore mean the same thing everywhere.
That is why some rows above carry no comparison. Spain counts registered tourist dwellings where Italy counts every tourist bed place; each statistics office defines a foreign resident differently; the property-price vintages run from 2018 in Italy to 2025 in Portugal. Putting two such numbers side by side and calling the difference a finding would be inventing one, so the row states the reason instead.
Full method, sources and known gaps: the methodology page.