Cádiz · Andalucía
Algeciras
An unabashed port and industrial centre across the bay from Gibraltar, once elegant but grown ugly — though its old town still has attractive, barely-changed corners.
Why people fall for Algeciras
Portrait drawn from The Rough Guide.
The last town of the Spanish Mediterranean, facing Gibraltar across the bay.
Worth the trip
- The old town around Pza. Alta, which seems barely to have changed in fifty years
A little history
When Franco closed the border with Gibraltar at La Línea, he developed Algeciras to absorb Spanish workers formerly employed in the British naval dockyards.
Who it suits: Transit travellers heading to Morocco
Who Algeciras is for — and who it isn't
Not our opinion: we ran the same scoring engine behind the quiz for six settler profiles across all 8,132 municipalities and read off where Algeciras lands.
Good for
- Remote-working couples 98th percentile of 8,132 towns 12 km from the sea · 126,500 people
- Families with school-age kids 97th percentile of 8,132 towns 12 km from the sea · a hospital in town
- Budget-first coastal settlers 97th percentile of 8,132 towns 12 km from the sea · 126,500 people
- Heat-averse settlers 96th percentile of 8,132 towns 12 km from the sea · mild 25.1°C summer highs
- Retiring couples 94th percentile of 8,132 towns a hospital in town · 13.9°C average winters
- American retirees 93rd percentile of 8,132 towns a hospital in town · 13.9°C average winters
The numbers
The decision data — each figure placed among all Spanish municipalities that report it ("top 10%" always means good, also where lower is better). Regional overlays and estimates are labelled, and where there's no local reading we say so plainly.
Climate
- Winter average temp
- 13.9°C top 3% of 8,131 towns 6.1°C above the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 25.1°C top 8% of 8,131 towns 5.1°C below the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 57 days top 35% of 8,088 towns 16% less than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine
- no local data
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 30 top 32% of 8,033 towns 26 below the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- €1,533/m² top 27% of 306 towns 31% less than the Spanish average (€2,208/m²)
- Net income per person
- €12,564 bottom 24% of 8,059 towns 13% less than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 23.9% bottom 38% of 6,605 towns
Schools
- Schools in town
- 77 top 1% of 7,042 towns
- Nearest international school
- 3 km top 1% of 8,132 towns
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 457 #16 of 17 regions, −22 vs national 24 below the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 0 min top 1% of 8,132 towns
- Nearest health centre
- 3.1 km top 13% of 7,025 towns
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 173 days #17 of 17 regions, +70 days vs national 60% more than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 86 min bottom 38% of 8,132 towns
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 94% top 31% of 8,132 towns 15% above the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 100% top 1% of 8,132 towns 17% above the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 126,500
- Born in Spain
- 85.4% 3.4% below the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 1.5% 2.3% below the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 0.37 per 1,000
Numbers: SpainScore town dataset, derived from INE, AEMET, Mitma and the Catastro. Percentile chips count only the municipalities that report the figure — the "of n" says how many. Region-ranked figures (PISA, surgical waits) compare Spain's 17 comunidades autónomas. A blank means no municipal-level figure is published — not a zero.
The year, month by month
AEMET 30-year climate normals — what a January or an August actually feels like, not the annual average.
How does Algeciras fit you?
These are the town's numbers. Whether it's your town depends on what you're optimising for — winter sun or mild summers, a city or a village, short medical waits, an easy flight home. The 3-minute quiz scores Algeciras against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 30 min from Línea de la Concepción, La, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Algeciras for you →Nearby towns
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