The municipality of Mogán closed 2023 with 20.938 registered residents, its highest figure since official records began with the INE (National Institute of Statistics and Census). Although the demographic recovery is supported by foreign immigration, the figure marks a turning point after years of stagnation and is interpreted politically as a testament to the management of Mayor Onalia Bueno, who has governed since 2015. Between 2018 and 2021, Mogán experienced a negative internal migration balance, meaning more people left the municipality than arrived from other parts of Spain. This peaked in 2021, when the census barely grew (+85 people) despite the increase in the foreign population. However, in 2022 and 2023, that trend reversed: in 2022, the municipality gained 101 residents due to internal migration, and the population register grew by 607 people in 2023 alone, the largest increase since before the pandemic.
The municipal government attributes this recovery to improved public services, enhanced security, the maintenance of tourist areas, and a commitment to a balance between coexistence and development. "A more livable Mogán is being consolidated, both for residents and for those who decide to settle here from other parts of the country or the world," emphasize sources close to Bueno. Although local management has improved the perception of the municipality as a place of residence, the key demographic remains foreign immigration. In 2023, more than 35% of the population was of non-Spanish nationality, and more than half of these were European, especially from the north and center of the continent.
The dynamism of this foreign population has sustained the growth of the census in a context of negative natural growth since 2020, with more deaths than births year after year. In 2023 alone, 43 more deaths than births were recorded, and the crude mortality rate (8,26‰) was the highest in a decade. Mogán maintains an aging index of 132,5, similar to that of the Canary Islands as a whole, reflecting an inverted population pyramid. The labor force renewal rate (74,87) also falls far short of the level necessary to guarantee generational replacement. Even so, the recovery of the census is good news for local coffers and public services, as it directly impacts funding per capita.
The challenge for Onalia Bueno and her governing team will now be to consolidate this recovery, ensuring the integration of new residents—many of them foreigners—, ensuring the quality of municipal services, and promoting active birth and healthy aging policies. With a recovered population register and a positive perception of the municipality as a residential destination, Mogán is once again positioning itself as one of the few tourist enclaves in the Canary Islands that has managed to grow without relying exclusively on the holiday sector, combining its tourism identity with a growing residential dimension.
