Asturias · Pdo De Asturias
Gijón
Not the Asturian capital, but what it lacks in status it makes up for in attitude — a gritty, muscular identity forged by iron and shipping industries, now Asturias's largest city.
Why people fall for Gijón
Portrait drawn from Lonely Planet, the Michelin Green Guide & The Rough Guide.
Occupies the narrow Santa Catalina peninsula, nestled between two coves.
On the table. Cider bars.
Worth the trip
- Elogio del Horizonte, a 500-tonne concrete monument by Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida
- Two appealing city beaches and one of Spain's best botanical gardens
- Museo Casa Natal de Jovellanos
- Semana Negra arts festival, second week of July
Fiestas
- Semana Negra, second week of July
A little history
Gijón is the result of the gritty determination of its inhabitants, and the iron and shipping industries that have fuelled its success.
Who it suits: Beach travellers · Cider-bar crawlers
Who Gijón 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 Gijón lands.
Good for
- Families with school-age kids 99th percentile of 8,132 towns 5 km from the sea · a hospital in town
- Heat-averse settlers 98th percentile of 8,132 towns 5 km from the sea · mild 23.1°C summer highs
- Remote-working couples 97th percentile of 8,132 towns 5 km from the sea · 271,259 people
- Budget-first coastal settlers 93rd 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
- 11.5°C top 15% of 8,131 towns 3.7°C above the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 23.1°C top 4% of 8,131 towns 7.1°C below the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 122 days bottom 6% of 8,088 towns 78% more than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine
- no local data
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 6 top 6% of 8,033 towns 50 below the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- €2,342/m² bottom 40% of 306 towns 6% more than the Spanish average (€2,208/m²)
- Net income per person
- €16,141 top 25% of 8,059 towns 11% more than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 21.4% bottom 24% of 6,605 towns
Schools
- Schools in town
- 114 top 1% of 7,042 towns
- Nearest international school
- 5 km top 3% of 8,132 towns
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 495 #2 of 17 regions, +16 vs national 14 above the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 0 min top 1% of 8,132 towns
- Nearest health centre
- 2.3 km top 10% of 7,025 towns
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 91 days #7 of 17 regions, −12 days vs national 16% less than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 41 min top 15% of 8,132 towns
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 98% top 10% 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
- 271,259
- Born in Spain
- 86.5% 2.3% 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
- 1.18 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 Gijón 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 Gijón against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 11 min from Siero, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Gijón for you →Nearby towns
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