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Best places to live in Spain for expats: addresses we checked

Guides to the best places to live in Spain for expats stop at the city. This table ranks eighteen doors, three per city, by one calculation.

Addresses we scored

Each row is one front door, not a district: the house across the railway would score differently.

ScoreAddressCityStrongestLoses to
95.0Everything on footCalle de Ibiza 35, MadridRetiroMadrid Groceries HealthAir −1.4
94.3Everything on footRambla del Poblenou 60, BarcelonaPoblenouBarcelona Groceries Cafes and cultureNoise −0.8, Air −2
92.2Everything on footPlaza del Ayuntamiento 1, ValenciaCiutat VellaValencia Groceries Public transportAir −0.8
90.6Everything on footPlaça de la Virreina, BarcelonaGràciaBarcelona Groceries Education and childrenAir −2
89.4Most errands on footCalle de Emilio Baró 50, ValenciaBenimacletValencia Groceries Parks and sportNoise −2.7, Air −0.8
88.5Most errands on footPaseo de la Chopera 14, MadridArganzuelaMadrid Public transport Parks and sportNoise −0.7, Air −1.4
87.9Most errands on footCalle de Serrano 47, MadridSalamancaMadrid Public transport HealthNoise −0.3, Air −1.4
86.1Most errands on footCalle Asunción 30, SevilleLos RemediosSeville Groceries Public transportNoise −5.7, Air −0.9, Industry −1.6
85.0Most errands on footCalle de la Reina 100, ValenciaEl CabanyalValencia Groceries Cafes and cultureNoise −3.1, Air −0.7
85.0Most errands on footCalle Ayala 20, MálagaCarretera de CádizMalaga Services nearby GroceriesNoise −4.5, Air −0.5
84.6Most errands on footPlaça de Sarrià, BarcelonaSarrià-Sant GervasiBarcelona Groceries Parks and sportNoise −3.2, Air −2.4
83.8Most errands on footCalle Feria 100, SevilleCasco AntiguoSeville Groceries Cafes and cultureNoise −2.2, Air −0.9
80.2Most errands on footAvenida de Eduardo Dato 40, SevilleNerviónSeville Services nearby GroceriesNoise −6.4, Air −0.9
75.4Most errands on footCalle Virgen del Socorro 50, AlicanteRaval RoigAlicante Parks and sport Cafes and cultureAir −0.5
73.9The basics on footAvenida de Plutarco 20, MálagaTeatinosMalaga Parks and sport Street networkNoise −3.7, Air −0.7
71.8The basics on footPaseo Marítimo El Pedregal 50, MálagaPedregalejoMalaga Parks and sport Street networkAir −0.5
70.1The basics on footAvenida de Niza 20, AlicantePlaya de San JuanAlicante Parks and sport Street networkAir −0.4
68.7The basics on footAvenida de Novelda 60, AlicanteLos ÁngelesAlicante Groceries Parks and sportNoise −4.7, Air −0.5

This table ranks eighteen doors, three per city, by one calculation.

Score your own address

By city

Malaga

  1. Carretera de Cádiz85.0
  2. Teatinos73.9
  3. Pedregalejo71.8
About Malaga

Seville

  1. Los Remedios86.1
  2. Casco Antiguo83.8
  3. Nervión80.2
About Seville

Alicante

  1. Raval Roig75.4
  2. Playa de San Juan70.1
  3. Los Ángeles68.7
About Alicante

How to read the table

The three addresses in each city are in different districts, and all rows use the general profile. Open a row to see the full report, switch to the family or without-a-car profile, and add the address from your own listing next to it.

Coast or interior, big city or mid-sized

Roundups of the best cities to live in Spain tend to rank them. It is more useful to know what each choice costs you. Madrid sits on a high plateau: dry heat in summer, cold winter mornings and no sea. Barcelona has the sea and the hills, and less room, so apartments are smaller and streets busier. Valencia and Seville are flat and easy to cross by bicycle. Malaga is squeezed between hills and the coast, so the city stretches along the shore and distances add up quickly.

If you are looking for the most walkable cities in Spain, the center of almost any large one qualifies. What the table adds is the spread inside each: a row in Chamberí and a row beyond the M-30 are both Madrid.

Madrid and Barcelona by the block

Lists of the best neighborhoods in Madrid to live in and of the best neighborhoods in Barcelona for expats repeat the same names: Chamberí and Salamanca, Gràcia and the Eixample. Inside each, the row you would land on depends on the block. An Eixample address on Carrer d'Aragó, with lanes of through traffic under the window, loses points that one on pedestrianised Consell de Cent keeps.

People look for the safest neighborhoods in Barcelona to live in, and the usual local answer is that pickpocketing follows the tourist crowds in the old town and on the metro. Crime is outside the score, so the table says nothing on it.

Questions

Which Spanish city ranks highest for expats?

The table ranks buildings. The top rows are addresses in dense older districts with a market, a school, a park and a metro stop a few minutes away and no main road next door, and every one of the six cities has such streets.

Does living near the sea raise the score?

A beach or seafront within a walk adds to the parks category, in proportion to the minutes it takes to reach it. Madrid and Seville lose nothing for being inland, and the Guadalquivir embankment counts as large water.

Are rents part of the rating?

No. The score counts what you can walk to and what makes a place worse: noise, air, industry. City pages carry a cost-of-living block from open sources, and rents are in the listings.

Why these six cities?

They are the ones with a city page on this site. Any address in Spain can be scored, and a report for Bilbao or Palma compares directly with these rows.