Cuenca · Castilla-La Mancha
Cuenca
A UNESCO World Heritage city built on the rim of a steep, craggy precipice, its Casas Colgadas (hanging houses) brazenly teetering over the ravine, now also a nerve centre of abstract modern art.
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Why people fall for Cuenca
Portrait drawn from Lonely Planet.
On the mouth of two river gorges, the Río Huécar and Río Júcar.
On the table. Stellar restaurants.
Worth the trip
- The Casas Colgadas (hanging houses)
- Contemporary art museums and galleries, including the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español
A little history
First built by the Moors in 714, Cuenca flourished as a fortified citadel for three centuries until King Alfonso XIII conquered the city in 1177, ending Moorish rule.
Who it suits: Architecture and modern-art travellers
Who Cuenca 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 Cuenca lands.
Cuenca is mid-pack for all six profiles we score (between the 46th and 81st 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
- 6.4°C bottom 41% of 8,131 towns 1.3°C below the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 31.7°C bottom 30% of 8,131 towns 1.5°C above the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 70 days bottom 36% of 8,088 towns 3% more than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine estimated
- 7.3 h/day bottom 44% of 3,829 towns about the Spanish average (7.2 h/day)
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 211 bottom 2% of 8,033 towns 154 above the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- €1,567/m² top 29% of 306 towns 29% less than the Spanish average (€2,208/m²)
- Net income per person
- €14,988 top 41% of 8,059 towns 3% more than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 22.1% bottom 27% of 6,605 towns
Schools
- Schools in town
- no local data
- Nearest international school
- 136 km bottom 2% of 8,132 towns
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 464 #14 of 17 regions, −15 vs national 17 below the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 0 min top 1% of 8,132 towns
- Nearest health centre
- 52.4 km bottom 5% of 7,025 towns
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 92 days #8 of 17 regions, −11 days vs national 15% less than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 156 min bottom 3% of 8,132 towns
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 98% top 12% of 8,132 towns 19% above the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 99% top 14% of 8,132 towns 16% above the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 53,761
- Born in Spain
- 85.2% 3.6% below the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 2.7% 1.1% below the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 0.73 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 Cuenca 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 Cuenca against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities.
Take the quiz — rank Cuenca for you →Nearby towns
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