The TOP 15 Spanish cities with the highest living standards in 2024

The TOP 15 Spanish cities with the highest living standards in 2024

Content:

Functional urban areas in Spain: the economy and quality of life

The Spanish Banking Group Foundation (BBVA) wrote a report called "Urban Functional Areas of Spain: Economy and the Quality of Life." It looked at what affected the quality of life in Spanish cities like environmental factors, the time needed to get to work, public safety and others.

Content of the report.

The report looked at 73 functional urban areas in the country. These were mainly urban groupings and neighboring areas with a population of more than 1,500 people per km2 and a minimum of 50,000 residents.

Only 5 of these areas have a population of 1,000,000 people or more (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville and Bilbao). Also, there are 166 municipalities around Madrid. The smallest district has a population of just over 60,000 people.

How people moved around over the last century explains this population concentration in large cities. The population grew by 2.5 times while many residents left 70% of municipalities. During this time, many people moved from rural to urban areas. This is the reason why urban populations increased from 50% to 87%, and only 13% of residents stayed in rural areas. About 1/3 of the country's population lives in 52 provincial capitals. The population here has grown by almost 5 times since the beginning of the last century.

The TOP 15 Spanish cities with the highest living standards in 2021

Spanish cities with the highest living standards

The report says that the 2 main Spanish cities of Madrid and Barcelona have the highest quality of life, but other (minor) cities like Ibiza, Toledo and Guadalajara also show high quality in some areas.

Ibiza - the city with the best social and economic conditions

Madrid and Barcelona take the first place with the general factors that mean good quality. The study was done on 3 main indicators of quality of life: social and economic conditions, urban environment conditions and people's health indicators.

The cities of Ibiza, Barcelona, San Sebastian, Madrid, Girona and Palma de Mallorca are at the top of the social and economic rankings. They are followed by cities mainly in the northeastern parts of the peninsula and some tourist districts (Vitoria, Lleida, Irun, Lorca, Tarragona, Bilbao, Marbella, Toledo, Pamplona, Burgos, Zaragoza, Benidorm, and Logroño).

Barcelona - the city with the best urban environment

Barcelona and Madrid take the lead in the second group of good urban environment conditions. Other large cities (San Sebastian, Seville, Bilbao and Valencia), 2 main areas (Benidorm and Palma de Mallorca) and a number of small towns in the Basque Country, Navarre and Catalonia stand out too. Granada, León, Guadalajara and Salamanca also have good ratings.

Toledo - the city with a high level of people’s health

Finally, cities with the best results in the third group of the level of people’s health are difficult to structure by region. These cities are quite diverse. Toledo is the first, then followed by Guadalajara, Madrid, Murcia, Vitoria, Albacete, Logrono, Elche, Salamanca, Pamplona, Orotava, La Burgos, Barcelona, Cáceres, Marbella, Talavera de la Reina, Girona, Valladolid, and Ponferrada.

Industrial specialization of urban areas

The report gives information about other points like sectors with the maximum specialization in each urban area. As a rule, large companies have less global specialization in employment than small ones. Small companies are more diversified in their production structure.

The study in 16 large urban areas in Spain revealed that there were areas where the manufacturing industries were more developed. These are Valencia, Zaragoza, Vigo, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valladolid.

Vigo and Valladolid are said to show a lot of specialization in the “transport vehicle production ”, “programming, consulting and other activities related to computer science” in Madrid.

Sectors with a major specialization in large cities in Spain
CitySector
Madrid Programming, consulting and other activities related to computer science
Barcelona Wholesale trade and resellers, excluding transport vehicles and motorcycles
Valencia Wholesale trade and resellers, excluding transport vehicles and motorcycles
Seville Public administration and defense; obligatory social security
Bilbao Metal products manufacture, except for machinery and equipment
Malaga Food production
Zaragoza Production of electrical material and equipment
Palma de Mallorca Building construction
Las Palmas Wholesale trade and resellers, excluding transport vehicles and motorcycles
Murcia Food production
Grenada Education
Vigo Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers
Santa Cruz de Tenerife Wholesale trade and resellers, excluding transport vehicles and motorcycles
Alicante Sanitation activities
Valladolid Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers
La Coruña Tailoring

Research on "Organization of Consumers and Users of Spain (OCU - La Organización de Consumidores y Usuarios)"

The survey by the Organization of Consumers and Users of Spain (OCU) with 3,000 Spanish respondents living in the 15 largest Spanish cities (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, Malaga, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Bilbao, Alicante, Cordoba, Valladolid, Vigo and Gijón) used these 10 criteria: mobility, public safety, health care, educational services, cultural, sports and leisure activities, environmental pollution, labor market, cost of living, the real estate market and city cleaning.

The best cities:

  • Vigo is the best among the "Great Spanish Cities". This Galician city has high rates for safety, cleaning, education, environment and lack of pollution. It’s one of the best cities for families with children because the recreation, sports and culture sectors are developed here. Vigo also has weak points like the labor market and real estate.
  • Zaragoza has positive feedback from citizens in all aspects except cleaning.
  • Bilbao is at the top of the rankings with respondents noting the increase in the cost of living and the improved real estate market.
  • Valladolid and Córdoba close the top 5 cities with the highest rates from their residents.
  • Barcelona and Madrid stand out as 2 high-rated cities for the cost of living, real estate market, environment, and city cleaning as common disadvantages. Their advantages are job offers in the developed labor market, culture, sports and recreation.

Medical services are rated negatively in Madrid, Seville and Malaga.

Public safety is a problem in Barcelona and Seville.

Madrid, Alicante and Palma score below average in education.

The TOP 15 Spanish cities with the highest living standards in 2021

The cost of living

Residents of Valladolid and Vigo are satisfied with the cost of living. Palma de Mallorca and Barcelona have the highest percentage of people who are unhappy with this.

Public safety

Residents say that Vigo is the safest city. It’s followed by Gijón.

Mobility

The most popular cities are Bilbao and Zaragoza. Mobility satisfaction has been greatly affected by the coronavirus crisis. Malaga and Alicante are the cities with more positive total balances (i.e. the difference between respondents who think the situation has worsened and those who think it has improved).

Environmental quality

Environmental pollution is an important point for the quality of urban life. Vigo takes first place with the highest scores from an environmental point of view. It’s followed by Zaragoza and Bilbao. Barcelona and Madrid got the lowest scores.

This aspect is one that the pandemic has "improved”, especially in Barcelona.

Health Services

Bilbao tops the ranking of cities in this important aspect (72% of respondents are satisfied with healthcare). It’s followed by Zaragoza (69%) and Cordoba (62%). The pandemic crisis played a large role in assessing healthcare. Bilbao has the best balance.

Cultural, sports and leisure activities

Bilbao tops the list of cities where these services are highly rated by citizens (7 out of 10 are satisfied) once again. It’s followed by Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona with similar percentages. The general opinion is that these sectors have been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis.

Education is the main aspect for families with children. The cities with the most satisfied residents are Bilbao, Vigo and Zaragoza. Palma de Mallorca is in last place in this ranking.

Cleaning

The residents of Bilbao and Vigo appreciate road cleaning and garbage collection, while respondents from Alicante and Madrid are the least satisfied with those.

Labor market

Employment opportunities and job offers affect life. The percentage of people who aren’t satisfied is higher in Madrid, Zaragoza and Valladolid. But even in the best case, it doesn’t reach 30%.

Real estate market

Respondents from Zaragoza, Valladolid, Valencia and Cordoba have a more positive view of real estate diversity and affordability.

These different aspects show that these Spanish cities stand out for the best quality of life: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, Malaga, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Bilbao, Alicante , Cordoba, Valladolid, Vigo and Gijon. Also, cities like Ibiza, Toledo, Guadalajara, San Sebastian, Girona should be added to this list.

The TOP 15 Spanish cities with the highest living standards in 2021

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