The Spanish Buyers and Consumers Organization (OCU) surveyed residents from 15 major cities in the country to determine their quality of life. The organization has an interesting list of the most comfortable regions to live in modern Spain, in which Vigo unexpectedly ranks first, while the capital of the country was only in 6th place.
The main factors in the rating were cultural and sports leisure, reasonable cost of living, developed infrastructure, including for children, public transport and mobility, digitalization, climate and access to quality health care.
The cities of Vigo, Zaragoza, Bilbao, Valladolid and Cordoba took the top five of the rating. Vigo stands out for its clean and healthy environment, safety and education, while Zaragoza offers the best cultural leisure, transportation and medical services. Also, the real estate market in Zaragoza is quite rich.
Bilbao, Valladolid and Cordoba are a combination of the strongest sides of Vigo and Zaragoza, but the situation looks like "quantity versus quality", as in some criteria, these three cities lose to the leaders of the list. Separately, it is worth pointing out Valladolid. Its residents noted some problems of the local real estate market.
Malaga opens the second half of the top 10. Andalusia ranks seconds in terms of quality of life, second only to the aforementioned Cordoba. During the survey, Malagasy residents recognized that the city should improve the safety of life. At the same time, they note the high rates of mobility in the city, as well as convenience and speed of movement, transport and infrastructure.
Malaga is followed by Valencia, Gijon, Alicante and Seville. The advantage of Valencia is the various green areas and clean environment. In addition, the city has high employment rates. Gijon has also been noted as a very clean city that has no drawbacks, but is not the best option either. Alicante, on the contrary, is good in many factors, but it is the ecology and clean conditions that reduce its rating, according to surveys of locals. Seville, on the other hand, does not have the highest quality of medical care and safety.
The last five cities in the ranking are Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Murcia, Palma, Barcelona and Madrid. They do not lose much in positive ratings compared to the top ten, but they are held back by several shortcomings. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is expensive to live in and has problems with the labor market, Murcia has low mobility rates, Palma has some difficulties with security and education, Barcelona does not appeal to respondents with housing prices.
Madrid includes all of the above, as well as severe pollution. The latter is quite expected, because we are talking about the capital of Spain — the most populous city in the country.