Araba/Álava · País Vasco
Vitoria-Gasteiz
The unsung administrative capital of the whole Basque Country — big plazas, leafy parks, street art on old-town buildings and an outstanding, reasonably priced pintxo scene.
What Vitoria-Gasteiz is like
Portrait drawn from Lonely Planet.
Capital of the southern Basque province of Álava (Araba), encircled by a thick belt of green, mountainous Basque countryside.
On the table. Outstanding pintxo bars and restaurants, and — unusually for the Basque Country — reasonably priced.
Worth the trip
- Extensive street-art murals painted on old-town buildings
- Catedral de Santa María, where repairs revealed 8th-century dwelling remains
- Santuario de Arantzazu, an avant-garde basilica perched on a mountain ridge nearby
- Day trips into La Rioja wine country to the south
Who it suits: City-break travellers seeking Basque culture beyond Bilbao/San Sebastián
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
- 6.3°C 1.4°C below the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 26.4°C 3.8°C below the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 100 days 46% more than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine
- 5.4 h/day 26% less than the Spanish average (7.2 h/day)
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 32 24 below the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- €2,700/m² 22% more than the Spanish average (€2,208/m²)
- Net income per person
- €17,982 24% more than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 22.3%
Schools
- Schools in town
- 112
- Nearest international school
- 48 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% 16% above the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 260,402
- Born in Spain
- 81.9% 6.9% below the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 1.4% 2.4% below the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 0.61 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 Vitoria-Gasteiz 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 Vitoria-Gasteiz against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 48 min from Bilbao, if that's your anchor.
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