Send Gift Baskets to Arona, Spain

The area was sparsely populated in the first centuries after the island was settled. Viera y Clavijo mentions a small village of the same name in an early work on the islands, but a church was not built until the 17th century, and this church did not become a parish church until March 1796.

Before the twentieth century, the economy was based on fishing and agriculture, including cochineal, bananas, and cattle. A small quarry was also present in Los Cristianos during the nineteenth century.

The population grew slowly in the first half of the twentieth century despite a slump in cochineal prices, a general decline in farming, and the Spanish Civil War. Since it has become a popular tourist destination, the economy and population have been overgrown. In 1996, the city’s people was 28,208, up from 13,556 in 1981. The population of the city has now surpassed 60,000 in 2005. According to the 1901 census, the municipality had approximately 2,000 residents. Sixty percent of the workforce works in the tourism industry.

The Islamic Federation of the Canary Islands, an organization that brings together associations and Muslim communities of the islands, has had headquarters in Los Cristianos in Arona since 2015.