Balears, Illes · Baleares
Formentera
A beautifully pure, get-away-from-it-all island — the smallest of the four main Balearics, with a bohemian, low-key character rooted in the 1960s hippy trail.
Why people fall for Formentera
Portrait drawn from Lonely Planet & The Rough Guide.
Dangling off the south coast of Ibiza, a half-hour by fast ferry, 20km long.
Worth the trip
- Some of Europe's most exquisite beaches, frost-white sand and azure/turquoise water
- Es Pujols aside, nude sunbathing is the norm nearly everywhere
A little history
Left uninhabited between 1348 and 1697 for fear of pirate raids; later a key stop on the 1960s hippy trail (Pink Floyd recorded an album here).
Who it suits: Beach purists wanting to escape rather than find sophistication · Cyclists (cars are restricted)
Who Formentera 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 Formentera lands.
Good for
- Retiring couples 100th percentile of 8,132 towns a hospital in town · 13.1°C average winters
- American retirees 100th percentile of 8,132 towns a hospital in town · 13.1°C average winters
- Families with school-age kids 100th percentile of 8,132 towns 5 km from the sea · a hospital in town
- Remote-working couples 100th percentile of 8,132 towns 5 km from the sea · 11,690 people
- Budget-first coastal settlers 100th percentile of 8,132 towns 5 km from the sea · 11,690 people
- Heat-averse settlers 97th percentile of 8,132 towns 5 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
- 13.1°C top 4% of 8,131 towns 5.4°C above the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 30.1°C top 46% of 8,131 towns 0.1°C below the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 44 days top 10% of 8,088 towns 35% less than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine
- 7.7 h/day top 32% of 3,829 towns 6% more than the Spanish average (7.2 h/day)
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 69 bottom 32% of 8,033 towns 12 above the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- no local data
- Net income per person
- €18,860 top 5% of 8,059 towns 30% more than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 40.8% top 4% of 6,605 towns
Schools
- Schools in town
- no local data
- Nearest international school
- 33 km top 35% of 8,132 towns
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 471 #11 of 17 regions, −8 vs national 10 below the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 0 min top 1% of 8,132 towns
- Nearest health centre
- 2.7 km top 11% of 7,025 towns
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 105 days #11 of 17 regions, +2 days vs national 3% less than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 68 min top 44% of 8,132 towns
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 97% top 19% of 8,132 towns 18% above the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 100% top 11% of 8,132 towns 16% above the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 11,690
- Born in Spain
- 64.4% 24.4% below the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 13.4% 9.6% above the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 2.05 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 Formentera 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 Formentera against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 51 min from Eivissa, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Formentera for you →Nearby towns
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