Cantabria · Cantabria
Potes
The main road junction and traveller's base on the east side of the Picos de Europa — a lovely medieval village tumbling down to the Río Deva.
Why people fall for Potes
Portrait drawn from The Rough Guide.
500m above sea level, at the confluence of the Deva and Quiviesa rivers.
Who it suits: Picos de Europa base
Who Potes 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 Potes lands.
Good for
- Heat-averse settlers 92nd percentile of 8,132 towns 29 km from the sea · mild 25.9°C summer highs
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
- 8.2°C top 36% of 8,131 towns 0.4°C above the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 25.9°C top 9% of 8,131 towns 4.3°C below the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 90 days bottom 14% of 8,088 towns 31% 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
- no local data
- Net income per person
- €13,722 bottom 41% of 8,059 towns 5% less than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 8.2% bottom 2% of 6,605 towns
Schools
- Schools in town
- no local data
- Nearest international school
- 52 km bottom 44% 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
- 68 min bottom 11% of 8,132 towns
- Nearest health centre
- 0.5 km top 1% of 7,025 towns
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 137 days #15 of 17 regions, +34 days vs national 27% more than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 84 min bottom 40% of 8,132 towns
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 96% top 21% of 8,132 towns 17% above the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 98% top 23% of 8,132 towns 15% above the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 1,318
- Born in Spain
- 79.8% 9% below the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 3.7% 0.1% below the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 3.04 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 Potes 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 Potes against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 68 min from Torrelavega, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Potes for you →Nearby towns
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