Friday, 5 September 2025, 13:09
The number of rich people has decreased in southern Spain’s Andalucía region. From one year to the next, they have fallen from 12,707 to 12,013, but the value of what on average each one owns has grown from the 3.79 million euros they declared in 2023 to 4.53 million euros in 2024. This is what the latest data from the wealth tax statistics, published periodically by the Ministry of Finance, reveals.
This report provides the greatest insight into the wealthiest people in Spain and by region. Regardless of whether the tax actually had to be paid in recent years, as there have been years in which Andalucía, for example, has been 100% tax-free, anyone with assets worth two million euros or more (these are the ‘rich’ for the purposes of the tax) has always been required to file a return.
This is a state tax, but its revenue stays in each region, unlike the wealth tax created by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government – introduced because more and more regional governments were effectively eliminating the original tax and leaving large fortunes without obligations – whose proceeds go to the central state. Hence, many regions, including Andalucía, have recovered the practical application of the tax: taxpayers had to pay the state tax already in 2023, if the wealth tax was not operational in their region. The regional government, it seems, has so far preferred that the revenue stays in Andalucía, instead of going to Madrid.
A total of 12,013 taxpayers in Andalucía filed a wealth tax return in 2024 for the year 2023, down from 12,707 the previous year, from which it can be deduced that the number of people with assets of over two million euros has fallen. But if in the 2022 tax return there were no high net worth individuals who paid the tax (because it was 100% subsidised in Andalucía), there were 662 taxpayers who paid the tax in 2023.
In Spain as a whole, the number of taxpayers – and the number of rich people – has fallen by 0.78%, from 230,365 to 228,575 from one year to the next. The number of people who have had to pay their tax returns has risen from 185,101 to almost 192,300.
Wealth above the Spanish average
The average wealth declared by taxpayers in Spain as a whole is 4.08 million euros, a year-on-year increase of 8.95%. Andalucía’s high net worth individuals have declared an average of 4.53 million euros, 19.5% higher than the previous year, when it did not even reach 3.8 million euros. In fact, the wealthy Andalusians are placed fourth in the ranking, only behind the people of Madrid, who have properties with an average value of more than 11 million euros; the Galicians (7.59 million); and the people of Murcia (7.32 million). The wealthy Andalusians are wealthier than the Catalans, for example, who each have an average of 2.85 million euros.
Andalusians are the fourth richest people in Spain. Moreover, according to treasury statistics, by number of rich people, Andalucía is the fourth region with the lowest number of rich people, behind Catalonia (90,790), Valencia (28,821) and Madrid (24,533), although it is the first in terms of population.
Where the rich invest
The data provided by Spain’s Ministry of Finance also shows how the wealth of the wealthiest people in Andalucía is distributed. A total of 12,013 have submitted their wealth returns. Of these, 11,600 have properties, mainly urban, with an average value of more than 706,000 euros.
Secondly, there are 11,732 taxpayers who report movable capital, i.e. financial investments. Most of them (11,691) report mainly non-tradable assets, primarily bank deposits, with average savings of 371,727 euros per taxpayer. A good number of these taxpayers have non-tradable shares that are exempt from paying tax because they are, for example, shares in the capital of family companies: this is the case of nearly 4,000 wealthy people in Andalucía who have an average of almost six million euros invested in this type of instrument.
In addition, around 8,400 high net worth individuals in Andalucía have investments in assets traded on stock markets. The most popular investment – the case for more than 6,100 people in Andalucía – are investment funds, with deposits of around 800,000 euros, on average, although more than 4,800 rich people have 361,800 euros, on average, invested in shares. There are 260 who declare an average of 7.7 million euros in shares in their family companies, which are assets tradable on regulated markets.
Only 1,534 of the more than 12,000 rich people in Andalucía invest in public debt, with an average of around 430,000 euros.
The statistics also show which taxpayers admit to owning luxury goods: there are 2,338 taxpayers who declare vehicles, jewellery and furs with an average value of 30,833 euros; and another 50 or so have average investments of 282,822 euros in art objects and antiques.
In addition, a total of 2,055 taxpayers have economic activities, such as being self-employed and owning a medical practice or a law firm, with an average value of 876,920 euros declared by them.
Barely a hundred have investments in cryptocurrencies: these, on average, exceed 700,000 euros per holder.