Alicante/Alacant · Comunidad Valenciana
Elx
Spain's palm-grove city — Europe's largest palm forest, the mysterious Dama de Elche bust, and a centuries-old mystery play give it three separate UNESCO World Heritage listings.
Why people fall for Elx
Portrait drawn from the Michelin Green Guide & The Rough Guide.
16 miles (Michelin) / 20km (Rough Guide) inland and south of Alicante.
Worth the trip
- El Palmeral, Europe's largest palm grove, said to have been planted by the Phoenicians, UNESCO-listed since 2000 with over 200,000 palms
- Huerto del Cura, a landscaped private palm garden with a famed 'imperial palm' linked to Empress Sissi's 1894 visit
- La Dama de Elche, a renowned Iberian stone bust found here in 1897 (now in Madrid's Museo Arqueológico)
Fiestas
- Misteri d'Elx, a centuries-old mystery play performed 14–15 August in the Basílica Menor de Santa María
- Moros y Cristianos mock-battle celebrations
A little history
Palm groves originally planted by the Moors remain the town's chief industry: dates from the female trees, fronds from the males for Palm Sunday processions.
Who it suits: UNESCO/heritage-site travellers · Garden lovers
Who Elx 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 Elx lands.
Good for
- Retiring couples 100th percentile of 8,132 towns a hospital in town · only 33 rainy days a year
- American retirees 99th percentile of 8,132 towns a hospital in town · only 33 rainy days a year
- Remote-working couples 97th percentile of 8,132 towns 11 km from the sea · 245,575 people
- Families with school-age kids 96th percentile of 8,132 towns 11 km from the sea · a hospital in town
- Budget-first coastal settlers 95th percentile of 8,132 towns 11 km from the sea · a hospital in town
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°C top 5% of 8,131 towns 5.2°C above the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 30.5°C bottom 49% of 8,131 towns 0.3°C above the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 33 days top 2% of 8,088 towns 52% less than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine
- 8 h/day top 19% of 3,829 towns 10% more than the Spanish average (7.2 h/day)
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 154 bottom 6% of 8,033 towns 97 above the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- €1,684/m² top 37% of 306 towns 24% less than the Spanish average (€2,208/m²)
- Net income per person
- €11,849 bottom 16% of 8,059 towns 18% less than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 28.5% top 35% of 6,605 towns
Schools
- Schools in town
- 110 top 1% of 7,042 towns
- Nearest international school
- 14 km top 12% of 8,132 towns
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 473 #10 of 17 regions, −6 vs national 8 below 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
- 88 days #6 of 17 regions, −15 days vs national 18% less than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 41 min top 16% of 8,132 towns
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 96% top 22% of 8,132 towns 17% above the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 99% top 22% of 8,132 towns 15% above the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 245,575
- Born in Spain
- 81.4% 7.4% below the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 3.5% 0.4% below the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 0.83 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 Elx 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 Elx against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 25 min from Alacant/Alicante, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Elx for you →Nearby towns
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