Córdoba · Andalucía
Córdoba
Once the largest city of Roman Spain and heart of the western Islamic empire — its Mezquita, the grandest mosque ever built by the Moors in Spain, is a building of extraordinary mystical and aesthetic power.
Why people fall for Córdoba
Portrait drawn from Lonely Planet & The Rough Guide.
Lies upstream from Seville beside a loop of the once-navigable Guadalquivir.
Worth the trip
- La Mezquita, with 1293 marble columns, a mihrab by Byzantine craftsmen, and bells carried by Christian captives from Santiago de Compostela
- Wildly extravagant patios, celebrated with a 'Festival of the Patios' every May
- The Puente Romano and Arab water wheels along the river
- Medina Azahara, a Moorish palace-city ruin 7km outside town
Fiestas
- Festival of the Patios, in May
A little history
As Corduba it was the largest town in southern Iberia under Roman Emperor Claudius Marcellus; under the Moors from 711 CE it became the caliphate's capital and the largest city in Western Europe under Abd ar-Rahman I.
Who it suits: History and architecture travellers · Those with mobility restrictions (flat, easy to navigate)
Who Córdoba 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 Córdoba lands.
Córdoba is mid-pack for all six profiles we score (between the 62nd and 89th percentile) — a solid all-rounder, a standout for nobody. Your own priorities may read it differently: that's what the quiz is for.
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
- 11.1°C top 16% of 8,131 towns 3.4°C above the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 37.1°C bottom 1% of 8,131 towns 6.9°C above the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 55 days top 30% of 8,088 towns 20% less than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine
- 8.2 h/day top 9% of 3,829 towns 13% more than the Spanish average (7.2 h/day)
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 4 top 4% of 8,033 towns 52 below the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- €1,746/m² top 40% of 306 towns 21% less than the Spanish average (€2,208/m²)
- Net income per person
- €13,963 bottom 45% of 8,059 towns 4% less than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 26% top 50% of 6,605 towns
Schools
- Schools in town
- 291 top 1% of 7,042 towns
- Nearest international school
- 6 km top 4% 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
- 6.9 km top 36% 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
- 34 min top 10% of 8,132 towns
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 97% top 20% of 8,132 towns 18% above the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 98% top 26% of 8,132 towns 15% above the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 324,159
- Born in Spain
- 93.8% 5% above the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 1.1% 2.7% below the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 0.61 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 Córdoba 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 Córdoba against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 100 min from Linares, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Córdoba for you →Nearby towns
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