The territorial income gap in Spain registers increasingly large differences between some neighborhoods and others, reaching a distance that already exceeds 220,000 euros of gross income per year per taxpayer between the richest and poorest districts in the country. At the top of the classification, as has been customary for a long time, is La Moraleja, in the Madrid municipality of Alcobendas. To reach the opposite end you have to travel more than 500 kilometers, until you reach the eastern outskirts of Seville.
The Statistics of personal income tax filers in the largest municipalities by postal code, published this Thursday by the Tax Agency with data relating to 2024, shows that the luxury urbanization par excellence in Spain registered an average gross income of 235,556 euros per income tax filer, compared to the 196,429 euros recorded the previous year, which represents a growth of 20%. It is the highest in all of Spain by far. At the opposite pole, the Torreblanca neighborhood, on the outskirts of Seville, occupies the lowest position on the list with an average per capita income of 11,560 euros in 2024, after experiencing a modest variation of 2% compared to the 11,354 euros registered a year earlier. In this way, the difference between the area with the highest and lowest economic level is close to 224,000 gross euros.
Other privileged postal codes such as Ciudalcampo and Fuente del Fresno, both in San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid, also stand out in the group led by La Moraleja. The first reaches 145,046 euros (an annual increase of 19%) and the second moves at 139,369 euros (an increase of 9%). In Catalonia, the Barcelona neighborhoods of Muntaner figure prominently, with 127,182 euros (an increase of 19%) and Pedralbes-Sarriá, with 123,886 euros (an increase of 18%). In the capital, Aravaca also stands out, with 117,360 euros, and Salamanca-Goya, with 116,978 euros. Throughout Spain, excluding the Basque Country and Navarra because they have their own tax systems, a total of 13 postal codes register average incomes greater than 100,000 euros per year.
For its part, in the lower section of the classification, Torreblanca is accompanied by areas such as Nou Alacant, in Alicante; Cortijos de Marín, in Roquetas de Mar (Almería); Carrús-Plaza de Barcelona, in Elche; the South Sector-Guadalquivir Polygon, in Córdoba; and Ciudad Jardín, also in Alicante. In all these postal codes, the gross income of each declaration in 2024 was below 20,000 euros per year.
One of the most striking aspects reflected in the statistics is the sharp rise in the average income declared in some postal codes of Murcia and A Coruña. The largest increase in all of Spain is recorded in the district of Santa Cruz in Murcia, where the average income shot up by 258% from one year to the next, going from 25,157 euros in 2023 to 90,057 euros in 2024. A similar phenomenon, although with a somewhat lower intensity, is observed in the Ciudad Vieja-Centro postal code, in A Coruña, where the average income experienced an increase of 121%, jumping from 53,354 to 117,970 euros and placing this Galician enclave directly among the areas with the highest income in the entire country.
The selection of municipalities for which the Tax Agency has data is based on three criteria, at least one of which must be met. On the one hand, explains the body dependent on the Treasury, a size greater than 200,000 inhabitants, according to the census. On the other hand, a fiscal size of at least 100,000 personal income tax returns. Finally, a total aggregate gross income of more than 2.2 billion euros. In most cases, all three criteria are met simultaneously, but there are a few cases in which only one of them is valid.
