Salamanca · Castilla Y Leon
Salamanca
The most graceful city in Spain, and for four centuries the seat of one of the world's most prestigious universities — a uniformly gorgeous Golden Age ensemble in warm golden sandstone.
Why people fall for Salamanca
Portrait drawn from Lonely Planet & The Rough Guide.
A relatively small place with a population of around 155,000, an awful lot of whom are students.
Worth the trip
- The most elegant Plaza Mayor in Spain
- Two Catedrals, one Gothic and one Romanesque
- The surviving university buildings, where Hernán Cortés and St Ignatius of Loyola studied and Columbus once pled his case
Fiestas
- Carnaval del Toro, particularly lively in Ciudad Rodrigo, week before Lent
- FÁCYL, Salamanca's International Arts Festival, June
A little history
The conquistador Hernán Cortés and St Ignatius of Loyola were students, and Columbus came here in 1486 in an initially unsuccessful attempt to persuade a university commission to back his exploration plans.
Who it suits: Students and academics · Architecture pilgrims
Who Salamanca 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 Salamanca lands.
Salamanca is mid-pack for all six profiles we score (between the 60th and 86th percentile) — a solid all-rounder, a standout for nobody. Your own priorities may read it differently: that's what the quiz is for.
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
- 6.4°C bottom 39% of 8,131 towns 1.4°C below the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 30.7°C bottom 45% of 8,131 towns 0.5°C above the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 62 days top 47% of 8,088 towns 10% less than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine
- no local data
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 60 bottom 41% of 8,033 towns 3 above the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- €2,166/m² bottom 45% of 306 towns about the Spanish average (€2,208/m²)
- Net income per person
- €15,319 top 36% of 8,059 towns 6% more than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 21.6% bottom 25% of 6,605 towns
Schools
- Schools in town
- 88 top 1% of 7,042 towns
- Nearest international school
- 90 km bottom 17% of 8,132 towns
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 499 #1 of 17 regions, +20 vs national 18 above the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 0 min top 1% of 8,132 towns
- Nearest health centre
- 0.5 km top 2% of 7,025 towns
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 87 days #5 of 17 regions, −16 days vs national 19% less than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 40 min top 15% of 8,132 towns
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 99% top 5% of 8,132 towns 20% 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
- 145,583
- Born in Spain
- 85.4% 3.4% below the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 1.8% 2% below the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 1.52 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 Salamanca 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 Salamanca against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 60 min from Zamora, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Salamanca for you →Nearby towns
Other places we profile within easy reach.