Malaga officially ranked Spain’s worst city to drive in as licence points vanish faster than anywhere else

Malaga has been labelled the Spanish city with the most problems behind the wheel after a Carwow ranking of 50 cities put it dead last on 30.92 out of 100. Researchers used official DGT and INE statistics, measuring crashes, licence points taken off and traffic offences per 100,000 drivers, then turned those rates into a safety score. Madrid and Barcelona usually take the blame in pub chat. This league table says otherwise.

Crash rate and vanished licence points drag Malaga down

Official figures credited to Malaga record 505 accidents per 100,000 drivers, the highest crash rate in the comparison in Spain. Points stripped from licences reached 43,533 per 100,000 drivers, well above every other city on the list, while offences ran at 4,197 per 100,000. Carwow argues tourist cities and large urban areas often carry heavier daily traffic, more short trips and tighter streets, which can push those numbers up. Costa del Sol regulars will recognise the squeeze on routes such as the A-7, already flagged in EWN coverage of Malaga’s most dangerous motorway stretches and the A-7 bottleneck.

Barcelona, Lleida, Girona and Madrid fare little better

Barcelona came 49th with 33.63 after 564 accidents, 8,965 points deducted and 18,786 offences per 100,000 drivers. Lleida sat 48th on 36.33 and logged the most crashes of all, 576 per 100,000. Girona followed in 47th with 46.93. Burgos landed 46th on 47.39, with 35,410 offences per 100,000 drivers. Madrid took 45th on 49.89. Malaga capital roads actually produced one of the lower big-city crash rates, 368 per 100,000, but red-light-jumping tickets and other fines pulled the score down. Anyone facing a notice can check how Spain’s points system and speeding fines work.

Leon leads while public opinion still backs Madrid

Leon topped the ranking with 97.44 after recording only 139 accidents per 100,000 drivers, the lowest in Spain. Cordoba scored 93.14 and Lugo 91.46, both with modest crash and penalty rates. A Carwow poll of 1,563 drivers found many Spaniards still think Madrid is the safest place to drive, even though the official numbers put it near the bottom. Perception and paperwork are not the same thing. A separate 2025 insurance study covered by EWN also placed Malaga among the more accident-prone provinces, though that work used different measures.

Malaga may have come out of the survey looking bad nationally for slack driving, but at least they didn’t try driving around Marbella!