Balears, Illes · Baleares
Palma
A go-ahead, cosmopolitan commercial hub and capital of the Balearics — a world away from the heaving tourist enclaves of the surrounding bay.
Why people fall for Palma
Portrait drawn from The Rough Guide.
Capital of the newly established Balearic Islands autonomous region since 1983; over 400,000 people.
Worth the trip
- The Catedral, five hundred years in the making, with modernista touches designed by Antoni Gaudí, built on the site of the Moorish Great Mosque
Who it suits: City-break travellers wanting Mallorca beyond the resorts
Who Palma 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 Palma lands.
Good for
- American retirees 99th percentile of 8,132 towns a hospital in town · direct flights to new york
- Retiring couples 94th percentile of 8,132 towns a hospital in town · a health centre close by
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
- 11.2°C top 15% of 8,131 towns 3.4°C above the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 31.6°C bottom 31% of 8,131 towns 1.4°C above the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 51 days top 21% of 8,088 towns 26% 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
- €3,789/m² bottom 7% of 306 towns 72% more than the Spanish average (€2,208/m²)
- Net income per person
- €16,181 top 24% of 8,059 towns 12% more than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 22.7% bottom 30% of 6,605 towns
Schools
- Schools in town
- no local data
- Nearest international school
- 6 km top 4% 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
- 1.8 km top 8% 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
- 17 min top 2% of 8,132 towns
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 98% top 12% of 8,132 towns 19% above the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 100% top 1% of 8,132 towns 17% above the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 443,196
- Born in Spain
- 69.7% 19.1% below the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 6% 2.2% above the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 2.06 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 Palma 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 Palma against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 25 min from Calvià, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Palma for you →Nearby towns
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