Costa Blanca

75% of people who move to the province of Alicante are from outside of Spain

As of the end of 2024, there were almost two million people living in the province of Alicante. This made it the fourth most populous region in Spain, after Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, and ahead of places like Seville and Malaga, which don’t even hit two million people.

The number of people living there rose by almost 11,000 in the last three months of the previous year compared to the three months before that. That’s a rise of almost 36,000 people in just one year, according to the National Institute of Statistics’ Continuous Population Survey.

The foreign population is growing at a much faster rate than the national population, which is one reason for this big increase in population. The non-Spanish population grew by 28,293 people from one year to the next, which was 78% of the total yearly growth.

This means that more than three out of every four new people who move to the province of Alicante are not from there. This group of people grew by 8,357 between the last quarter of 2024 and the previous quarter.

These numbers are a lot higher than the Spanish population, which has stayed the same. As of the end of the third quarter of 2024, 7,631 more people lived in the country than there were in the whole of 2023. They only make up 12% of the yearly growth in population.

There are 1,536,319 Spanish people living in the province of Alicante right now, but there are also 492,894 people from other countries. There are 2,000 more men than women among the foreigners, while there are 34,000 more women than men among the Spanish locals.

The number of people living in Alicante has grown very quickly in the last 100 years. The number of people living there has grown by 190,635 in the last ten years and by 367,533 in the last twenty years. Among this growth, 214,260 are foreigners, while only 153,293 are Spanish citizens.

When it comes to age, most people in Alicante are of working age. The biggest age group is 45 to 49, followed by 50 to 54 and 55 to 59.

There are 426,451 people in Spain who are 65 or older, which is a big chunk of the population. This age group is much bigger in Spain.

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Missing Persons Association searching for Stiven, 26, who disappeared from Elche

The SOS Missing Persons Association has issued an urgent alert concerning the disappearance of Stiven Manrique Penagos, a 26-year-old man who vanished on April 18, 2025, in Elche, Alicante.

Stiven is of typical build, stands at a height of approximately 1.70/1.72 metres, and has dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. Due to his vulnerability, they have prioritised his disappearance, and they are requesting public assistance to locate him as soon as possible.

The organisation is urgently looking to hear from anyone with any information of his whereabouts.

If anyone has information regarding his whereabouts, please contact info@sosdesaparecidos.es or call 649 952 957 and 617 126 909.

Regarding SOS Missing Persons

Sosdesaparecidos is a non-profit association established in Caravaca de la Cruz that collaborates in the dissemination of information about missing persons of any age whose families do not know what happened or where they are.

The goal of the 32 men and women on the SOSdesaparecidos team is to assist families by utilising their personal and professional experiences.

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Alicante TRAM collected 2,494 lost objects in 2024

Last year, Alicante TRAM passengers lost a total of 2,494 objects, which the Valencian Railways (FGV) collected. This data suggests that passengers abandon an average of seven artefacts daily and 208 objects monthly. These objects are stored at the stations for a minimum of one month and for an additional month in the lost property storage facility at Luceros station. The Alicante Local Police then receive the items if their proprietors have not claimed them after this period.

Wallets and purses, keys, backpacks, documents (ID, passports, driving licences, health cards, etc.), mobile phones, spectacles, folders, umbrellas, and handbags are the items that are seen on trains and trams in Alicante and its metropolitan area the most frequently.

October (442), January (393), November (378), June (366), March (308), April (303), August (296), July (291), May (286), December (276), February (263), and September (199) were the months in which the most items went missing, proceeding with the division by season.

The recovery of an object by its owner while it is registered with FGV amounts to 929, or 37.25%, thanks to the protocols established by FGV for the management and safekeeping of lost objects. The remaining percentage is either handed over to the Alicante Local Police or taken to a recycling centre or green point if the objects are clearly worn or deteriorated.

The time required to retrieve an item is contingent upon the presence of any identifying information or the customer’s claim. When there’s identifying information or a customer’s claim, we often recover the item the same day it goes missing, especially if it’s valuable.

Steps to be taken

In the initial phase, lost property is dropped off and picked up at the stations served by FGV personnel before being transferred to the central office at Luceros station.

After one month, the items are collected and transported to the lost property facility at Luceros station to attempt to identify their owner, deregister them for recycling based on their condition, or deliver them to the Alicante Lost Property Office after an additional month.

They promptly hand over official documents, such as passports and ID cards, to the authorities to determine their owner, then destroy bank cards to mitigate unnecessary risks and prevent tampering. Customer service personnel conduct follow-up and minor investigations to ensure their return to the police.

Amazing objects

In addition to the previously mentioned items, there are several remarkable items that it’s hard to imagine users would overlook. These items include bicycles, scooters, suitcases, crutches, walking sticks, laptops, tablets, baby strollers, shopping carts, motorcycle helmets, portable refrigerators, toiletry bags, umbrellas, hair dryers, X-rays, prescriptions, medical reports, a construction shovel, a shower telephone, and even a toilet seat or fire extinguisher.

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Firefighters rescue hiker after fracturing her leg in fall in Dénia

Members of the Provincial Fire Consortium rescued a 40-year-old woman on Monday, April 21st, on the climb to Cova del Aigua in Dénia after she fractured her leg in a fall while hiking.

The alert was received at around 12:48 p.m., and an Alpha 01 rescue helicopter and the Special Rescue Group (GER) were dispatched to the scene, the Consortium said in a statement.

Since the woman was at a point where the ambulance could not reach due to the terrain, the rescue helicopter was activated with the GER.

Once located, the officers disembarked from the helicopter and brought her back to San Vicente Park, where an ambulance was waiting. The operation ended at 4:04 p.m.