Date Published: 03/11/2021
ARCHIVED - Best and worst places to live in Spain
A new study has rated quality of life in the different communities in Spain
Measuring an intangible idea such as quality of life is no mean feat, and up until recently, officials used the gross domestic product (GDP) as an indicator of well-being. However, several experts from the United Nations and the OECD have argued that how much money a government has to spend in any one year is not sufficient as it doesn’t take into account things such as how safe a person feels on their streets.
To this end, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) has collected more than sixty indicators of quality of life across Spain including family matters and access to work, healthcare and education to determine the best communities to live in.
The results are of course subjective as the real answer depends on what each individual values the most, but some of the data are quite surprising and even contradictory in places.
Navarra has been voted as the region with the best health care while Aragón tops the list for working conditions and Cantabria is considered the safest community. On the other hand, Murcianos are the people who complain the most about noise and pollution but they are also the ones who find the most meaning in life overall.
Looking only at material factors such as income levels, poverty and equality, the Basque Country has been rated the best overall while at the other end of the scale sit the Canary Islands, Andalucía and Murcia.
The coronavirus pandemic has of course changed priorities, with Navarra standing out as the region with the best health conditions, while Andalucía, the Canary Islands and Murcia once again fail to impress.
Those most content with their daily environments are also the Navarrese, while Murcianos and Andalucíans are the least satisfied in this category, which evaluates issues such as pollution, noise and access to green areas.
Finally, the Balearic Islands, Aragon and Extremadura all rated the highest in terms of overall satisfaction with life while those living in Galicia, Castilla y Leon and Castilla-La-Mancha reported being the most dissatisfied.
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