Bizkaia · País Vasco
Bilbao
A city with character — once defined by steelworks and shipbuilding, polluted and in decline by the 1980s, transformed since the 1990s into the most exciting urban centre in the Basque Country.
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Why people fall for Bilbao
Portrait drawn from Lonely Planet & The Rough Guide.
Stretching for 14km beside the Río Nervión.
On the table. A venerable dining scene.
Worth the trip
- Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, opened 1997, which put the city centre stage in world art and culture
- A new metro system designed by Norman Foster
- The Casco Viejo old town and Zubizuri footbridge
A little history
The city was once defined by its steelworks and shipbuilding industries, which brought workers from across Spain and beyond.
Who it suits: Art and architecture travellers
Who Bilbao 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 Bilbao lands.
Good for
- Heat-averse settlers 95th percentile of 8,132 towns 11 km from the sea · mild 25.9°C summer highs
- Families with school-age kids 92nd percentile of 8,132 towns 11 km from the sea · a hospital in town
- Remote-working couples 91st percentile of 8,132 towns 11 km from the sea · 350,975 people
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
- 10.5°C top 18% of 8,131 towns 2.7°C above the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 25.9°C top 9% of 8,131 towns 4.3°C below the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 124 days bottom 6% of 8,088 towns 81% more than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine
- 4.5 h/day bottom 1% of 3,829 towns 38% less than the Spanish average (7.2 h/day)
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 6 top 6% of 8,033 towns 50 below the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- €3,402/m² bottom 11% of 306 towns 54% more than the Spanish average (€2,208/m²)
- Net income per person
- €19,478 top 4% of 8,059 towns 34% more than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 24.4% bottom 40% of 6,605 towns
Schools
- Schools in town
- 155 top 1% of 7,042 towns
- Nearest international school
- 10 km top 8% of 8,132 towns
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 482 #9 of 17 regions, +3 vs national 1 above the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 0 min top 1% of 8,132 towns
- Nearest health centre
- no local data
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 64 days #2 of 17 regions, −39 days vs national 41% less than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 15 min top 1% of 8,132 towns
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 99% top 6% of 8,132 towns 20% above the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 100% top 8% of 8,132 towns 17% above the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 350,975
- Born in Spain
- 82.4% 6.4% 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
- 1.26 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 Bilbao 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 Bilbao against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 20 min from Barakaldo, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Bilbao for you →Nearby towns
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