Badajoz · Extremadura
Olivenza
A whitewashed town that feels Portuguese despite being Spanish since 1801 — locals say its women are 'daughters of Spain and granddaughters of Portugal.'
Why people fall for Olivenza
Portrait drawn from The Rough Guide.
25km southwest of Badajoz, on the old disputed Spanish-Portuguese frontier.
Worth the trip
- Surviving town walls and a castle housing the Museo Etnográfico, including part of a 150kg meteorite that fell in 1924
- Iglesia Santa María Magdalena, in the distinctive Portuguese Manueline style with twisted-column arcades
A little history
Long disputed between Spain and Portugal, Spanish only since 1801, yet its buildings and character remain markedly Portuguese.
Who it suits: Border-history travellers
Who Olivenza 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 Olivenza lands.
Probably not for
- Heat-averse settlers 25th percentile of 8,132 towns weakest factor: mild summers
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
- 10.4°C top 21% of 8,131 towns 2.6°C above the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 35.6°C bottom 2% of 8,131 towns 5.4°C above the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 59 days top 38% of 8,088 towns 14% less than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine
- no local data
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 73 bottom 23% of 8,033 towns 17 above the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- no local data
- Net income per person
- €10,854 bottom 7% of 8,059 towns 25% less than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 32.4% top 17% of 6,605 towns
Schools
- Schools in town
- 4 top 15% of 7,042 towns
- Nearest international school
- 25 km top 26% of 8,132 towns
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 469 #12 of 17 regions, −10 vs national 12 below the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 39 min bottom 41% of 8,132 towns
- Nearest health centre
- 4.4 km top 19% of 7,025 towns
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 135 days #14 of 17 regions, +32 days vs national 25% more than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 46 min top 21% of 8,132 towns
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 89% bottom 48% of 8,132 towns 10% above the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 90% bottom 40% of 8,132 towns 7% above the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 11,775
- Born in Spain
- 94.9% 6.1% above the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 1.8% 2.1% below the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 0.17 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 Olivenza 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 Olivenza against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 50 min from Badajoz, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Olivenza for you →Nearby towns
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