Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.
Canarias remains among Spain’s poorest regions
Spain continues to confirm, with greater or lesser precision — but once again reflected in general terms for another year — a clear territorial divide between where the richest and the poorest reside. And once again, the northern half of the country is home to residents with the highest average incomes and the fewest socio-economic imbalances, while the southern half, by contrast, has the lowest incomes and the greatest gap between different groups. The Canary Islands remain part of that poorest segment, for one more annual reporting period, 2024, as shown in the latest Atlas of Household Income Distribution (2024), published this Monday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
More than a third of residents on low incomes
Among the many conclusions to be drawn from the results is that the Canary Islands remain in the poorer south of Spain: 36.2% of the resident population lives on a low average net income (803,584 people), a slight improvement on the 36.6% recorded in 2023. This Canarian figure contrasts sharply with the 1.3% in the Basque Country — the lowest in the country — along with 3% in Navarra, 4.7% in Asturias and 5% in the Balearic Islands. The study establishes four ranges: low, medium-low, medium-high and high.
Fifth highest share of low-income residents
The archipelago thus becomes the fifth autonomous community in Spain with the highest proportion of registered residents whose average income falls into the lowest bracket, a relative figure surpassed only by Murcia (58.7%), Extremadura (57.5%), Andalucía (56%) and Castilla-La Mancha (45.7%) — the bottom four regions in the ranking. This conclusion is reached through the distribution of census sections and the population residing in them by autonomous community and average annual net income per inhabitant for 2024, a variable analysed by the INE in its latest study.
The same indicator places 30.9% of the islands’ resident population in the medium-low income range (down from 32.2% in 2023), 19.2% in the medium-high range (up from 18.2%) and 13.7% in the high range (up from 12.9% in 2023). In the Canary Islands, 33% of municipalities had an average annual net income per inhabitant within the low bracket — the fifth worst percentage in the country, though better than Murcia (91.1%), Andalucía (83.9%), Extremadura (82%) and Castilla-La Mancha (43.5%).
National income rises to 15,948 euros
Average net income per person at national level rose by 6.1% in 2024 to stand at 15,948 euros. The municipalities of Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), Matadepera (Barcelona) and Boadilla del Monte (Madrid) once again topped the ranking of towns with more than 2,000 residents and the highest average annual income per inhabitant in Spain. At the opposite end were Iznalloz (Granada), El Palmar de Troya (Sevilla) and Albuñol (Granada) — the municipalities with more than 2,000 inhabitants and the lowest average annual income per person.
Among provinces with the highest average annual net income per inhabitant were the Basque provinces of Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia, along with Madrid. The lowest incomes were again recorded in Andalucía: Almería, Huelva and Jaén. Geographically, and also for 2024, the Basque Country was the autonomous community where 89.7% of its municipalities ranked among the top 25% of incomes in Spain (above 17,157 euros), followed by Navarra at 71.3%. At the other extreme were the Region of Murcia, with 91.1% of its municipalities among the bottom 25% nationally (below 13,407 euros), and Andalucía, with 83.9%.
Provincial and city breakdown
When census sections are ordered from lowest to highest average income per person, the top 10% of sections had incomes above the final decile (21,652 euros) in 2024. The provincial capitals with the highest percentage of census sections with very high average annual net income per inhabitant (above the final decile) were Donostia/San Sebastián (60.3%), Madrid (39.3%) and Bilbao (33.9%). Those with the lowest were Soria and Cuenca (both at 0%) and Guadalajara (1.7%). Meanwhile, the provincial capitals with the highest percentage of sections with very low average annual net income per inhabitant in 2024 (below the first decile of 11,322 euros) were Melilla (31.8%), Ceuta (30.4%) and Alicante (29.3%).
Gipuzkoa led the provincial ranking for annual income, with 20,790 euros of average annual net income per inhabitant in 2024, followed by Bizkaia (19,858) and Madrid (19,277). The provinces with the lowest annual income per inhabitant were Almería (12,244 euros), Huelva (12,765) and Jaén (12,835). The two Canary Islands provinces recorded averages of 14,794 euros in Las Palmas and 14,286 euros in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, both below the national average.
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