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.
What Salamanca is like
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
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
- 6.4°C 1.4°C below the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 30.7°C 0.5°C above the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 62 days 10% less than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine
- no local data
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 60 3 above the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- €2,166/m² about the Spanish average (€2,208/m²)
- Net income per person
- €15,319 6% more than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 21.6%
Schools
- Schools in town
- 88
- Nearest international school
- 90 km
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 499 18 above the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 0 min
- Nearest health centre
- 0.5 km
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 87 days 19% less than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 40 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
- 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: 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 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
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