This dataset collects the available information on abundances of stoneflies, caddisflies and aquatic beetles present in the streams and rivers of the Sierra Nevada (southern Spain) from different sources. Data include the location of the sampling sites where these insects were recorded, the available abiotic characteristics of their habitats and information on the number of individuals, the life stage in which they were collected and, for adults, their sex. All data coming from reaches belonging to streams and rivers above 800 m of altitude have been considered (not including records of these insects from high mountain lakes or other lentic habitats). The dataset is composed of 1,718 sampling events carried out between 1905 and 2022 in approximately 60 different water bodies, 15,347 occurrences belonging to more than 203,000 individuals, and 10,173 records of associated measurements (23 physico-chemical parameters). The dataset is the result of a comprehensive review of scientific literature and of integrating the Smart EcoMountains project data and the Sierra Nevada Global-Change Observatory’s long-term monitoring data. This information will be valuable for those studying past distributions and abundances of the species present in the dataset, as a basis for building predictive models or just studying temporal trends.