Bizkaia · País Vasco
Bilbao
A city with character — once defined by steelworks and shipbuilding, polluted and in decline by the 1980s, transformed since the 1990s into the most exciting urban centre in the Basque Country.
What Bilbao is like
Portrait drawn from Lonely Planet & The Rough Guide.
Stretching for 14km beside the Río Nervión.
On the table. A venerable dining scene.
Worth the trip
- Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, opened 1997, which put the city centre stage in world art and culture
- A new metro system designed by Norman Foster
- The Casco Viejo old town and Zubizuri footbridge
A little history
The city was once defined by its steelworks and shipbuilding industries, which brought workers from across Spain and beyond.
Who it suits: Art and architecture travellers
The numbers
The decision data — each figure against the Spanish average. Regional overlays and estimates are labelled, and where there's no local reading we say so plainly.
Climate
- Winter average temp
- 10.5°C 2.7°C above the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 25.9°C 4.3°C below the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 124 days 81% more than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine
- 4.5 h/day 38% less than the Spanish average (7.2 h/day)
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 6 50 below the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- €3,402/m² 54% more than the Spanish average (€2,208/m²)
- Net income per person
- €19,478 34% more than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 24.4%
Schools
- Schools in town
- 155
- Nearest international school
- 10 km
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 482 1 above the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 0 min
- Nearest health centre
- no local data
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 64 days 41% less than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 15 min
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 99% 20% above the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 100% 17% above the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 350,975
- Born in Spain
- 82.4% 6.4% below the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 1.5% 2.3% below the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 1.26 per 1,000
Numbers: SettleSpain town dataset, derived from INE, AEMET, Mitma, Ministerio del Interior and the Catastro. National average = the unweighted mean across all 8,132 Spanish municipalities with data. A blank means no municipal-level figure is published — not a zero.
How does Bilbao 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 Bilbao against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 20 min from Barakaldo, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Bilbao for you →Nearby towns
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