01
Cost of living
$941/mo
ES · LAS-PALMASLocal facts
Living in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Gran Canaria's capital, on the Atlantic, and the steadiest climate in this dataset: all twelve months average between 21°C and 28°C by day, and the whole year brings 132mm of rain against Madrid's 417mm. August peaks at 27.5°C, five degrees below Madrid. Rents sit close to Valencia and well below Madrid, and at 7.1µg/m³ of PM2.5 the air is the cleanest of any Spanish city here.
VerifiedUpdated
Population 381,868
· Atlantic/Canary· Spain rules apply
Official source
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2025
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Official INE municipal population for Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (municipality 35016) at 1 January 2025, read from the Cifras oficiales table 2889 through the INE JSON API (servicios.ine.es/wstempus/js/es/DATOS_TABLA/2889), series DPOP15862 = 381,868. Cross-checked against the same table's Hombres (183,879) + Mujeres (197,989) = 381,868.
- Notes
- The municipality only — the built-up area continues south towards Telde and north-west towards Arucas. Growth is slow and steady: the same official series gives 378,027 on 1 January 2023 and 380,436 on 1 January 2024, so 3,841 residents over two years. INE's newer Estadística Continua de Población puts the municipality at 386,153 on 1 January 2026, but that is a different series from the official Padrón figures used here and for the other Spanish cities in this dataset.
ES · LAS-PALMAS
01
At a glance
The headline numbers for Las Palmas de Gran Canaria — each with its own source and freshness. A live official figure is not the same as a survey estimate or a 30-year climate normal.
7.8/10
02
Rent, 1–3 bed
$702–$1,607
/mo
03
Freelancer tax
28.4%
Safety
9.6/100.72/100k
Air quality
9.2/107.1 µg/m³
Internet
5.0/1050 Mbps
English
5.0/10Moderate
Private health
9.1/10$821/yr
What the tags meanofficial — live figure from a government or authorityopen data — open dataset (Eurostat, EEA, M-Lab, UdSC…)survey — survey or index estimatecurated — SettleMetric-assembled estimate — open the source for the method
02
What it costs you per month
A planning estimate: real asking rent plus a cost-of-living basket scaled to your household. Not a quote.
Household
Lifestyle
Location
Estimated total
$1,641/mo
≈ $19,692 / year
Where it goes
- Rent (1-bed)$702
- Food & non-alcoholic drinks$205
- Transport$147
- Restaurants & eating out$128
- Utilities (water, electricity, gas)$66
- Recreation & culture$64
- Clothing & footwear$54
- Health (out-of-pocket)$52
- Household goods$48
- Insurance & financial services$48
- Personal care & misc.$47
- Communications$42
- Education$21
- Alcohol & tobacco$17
- Living costs$939
Rent from the asking-rent matrix below. Living costs scale a one-person basket ($939/mo) by household size and lifestyle; the equivalence factors are our assumption. Schooling and one-off setup are excluded.
03
Cost of living
What a single person spends each month — food, utilities, transport, eating out and the rest — excluding rent.
INE — Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares 2024 (household budget survey)
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- INE EPF 2024 per-household COICOP category spending, rent removed (imputed rent €9,299 stripped from the housing group, utilities kept), divided by average household size 2.50 to a per-capita non-rent basket, converted at EUR/USD 1.1399. Categories sum to the ~$941/mo cost-of-living aggregate. National per-capita basis — living alone in Madrid/Barcelona runs higher.
01Food & non-alcoholic drinks205 USD
02Transport147 USD
03Restaurants & eating out128 USD
04Utilities (water, electricity, gas)66 USD
05Recreation & culture64 USD
06Clothing & footwear54 USD
07Health (out-of-pocket)52 USD
08Household goods48 USD
09Insurance & financial services48 USD
10Personal care & misc.47 USD
11Communications42 USD
12Education21 USD
13Alcohol & tobacco17 USD
Spain's household-budget basket for a single person, excluding rent. Non-rent costs vary little between cities — the city-specific part is rent, shown under Housing below.
01Cost of living (single, excl. rent)country-level941USD/month, single person, excluding rent7.8
What this measures
Monthly cost of a defined single-person basket (food, transport, utilities, mobile+internet, modest leisure) excluding rent, curated from national statistics office price data and large local retailers' published prices, converted to USD at the ECB rate recorded in fx-rates. The method field of each value itemizes the basket inputs.
Lower is betterUSD/month, single person, excluding rentre-verified every 365 days
Curated by SettleMetric
INE — Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares 2024 (household budget survey), rent stripped
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- INE EPF 2024 average household spending by COICOP group (total €34,044/hh). Housing group €11,029 reduced to utilities only (imputed rent €9,299 removed), leaving a non-rent basket of €24,746/hh. Divided by average household size 2.50 (€34,044 ÷ €13,626 per-person) → €9,905/person/yr = €825/mo; converted at EUR/USD 1.1399 (ECB 2026-07-02) → $941/mo. Cross-checked against Eurostat comparative price levels (Spain ≈ 92% of EU27; ≈ 1.28× Poland, whose figure is $753).
- Notes
- National per-capita non-rent basket. A person living alone typically spends somewhat more per head (fixed costs not shared) — this figure is the reproducible household-survey floor. City files (Madrid/Barcelona) run higher; Valencia/smaller cities lower.
04
Housing
What it costs to rent, by apartment type and location.
idealista rental price index — municipality and districts of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, July 2026
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jul 31, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Base rent per type = idealista city index 14.8 €/m²/month (July 2026) × representative floor area: studio 35 m² (€518), 1BR 50 m² (€740, matching rent-1br-center), 2BR 70 m² (€1,036), 3BR 95 m² (€1,406). Centre/outside multipliers from idealista's own district indices: centre = mean of Centro (14.0), Puerto–Canteras (17.3) and Vegueta–Triana (12.7) = 14.67 €/m² → ×0.991 of the city average; outside = mean of Ciudad Alta (12.7), Tamaraceite–San Lorenzo (11.8) and Carretera del Centro–Cono Sur (12.0) = 12.17 €/m² → ×0.822. Converted at ECB EUR/USD 1.1534 (data/fx-rates.json, 2026-08-13). E.g. 1BR centre = 740 × 0.991 × 1.1534 = $846; studio outside = 518 × 0.822 × 1.1534 = $491.
- Notes
- ALL cells are DERIVED: idealista publishes €/m² by district but never a studio/1BR/2BR/3BR × centre/outside grid. The centre premium here is almost nil — nine-tenths of one per cent below the city average — because the two things pulling the average up and down cancel: the dearest district is Puerto–Canteras, the beach quarter around Las Canteras, while the historic core of Vegueta–Triana is among the cheapest in the city. Centre = the three coastal and old-town districts; outside = the three upper and inland ones. The multipliers come from district €/m², which is size-controlled, unlike a district average rent.
| Apartment | Central | Outside centre |
|---|---|---|
| Studio | 592 USD/mo | 491 USD/mo |
| 1-bedroom | 846 USD/mo | 702 USD/mo |
| 2-bedroom | 1,184 USD/mo | 982 USD/mo |
| 3-bedroom | 1,607 USD/mo | 1,333 USD/mo |
05
Climate
Temperature and rainfall through the year, plus air quality.
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2020
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- WMO 1991–2020 station normals (public domain): Daily_Minimum_Temperature and Daily_Maximum_Temperature (Mean, °C) and Precipitation_Total (Sum, mm). Station: GRAN CANARIA/AEROPUERTO, WMO 60030, 27°55'04"N 15°23'43"W, elevation 32m, 30 of 30 years present in every month (29 for March minimum temperature). Corroborated against NOAA NCEI Global Summary of the Month for the same site (station SPE00120215, "LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIA GAN") restricted to 1991–2020: monthly mean maxima agree to within 0.6°C in every month and the annual precipitation total to within 6mm, on the 10–16 years per month that series actually reports.
- Notes
- The station is at Gando, on the east coast about 18km south of the city centre, and is the only site for which AEMET publishes 1991–2020 normals under its Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) selector; the city itself is marginally wetter and less exposed to the trade wind. Annual precipitation of 131.6mm makes this the driest place in this dataset after Abu Dhabi (50mm) and Dubai (79mm), and the summer maxima are held down by the cold Canary current: August averages 27.5°C by day, five degrees below Madrid in the same month.
Average day/night temperature (lines, left axis) and total rainfall (bars, right axis) for each month — 1991–2020 normals. Hover a month for exact figures.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daytime high °C | 21.1° | 21.4° | 22.2° | 22.9° | 23.9° | 25.4° | 26.9° | 27.5° | 26.9° | 26.1° | 24.1° | 22.3° |
| Nighttime low °C | 15.6° | 15.6° | 16.0° | 16.8° | 17.9° | 19.5° | 20.9° | 21.8° | 21.4° | 20.2° | 18.4° | 16.7° |
| Rainfall mm | 26 | 20 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 19 | 17 | 26 |
01Climate comfort12pleasant months/year10.0
What this measures
Number of months whose 1991–2020 climate normals satisfy: mean daily maximum between 15°C and 28°C and monthly precipitation under 150mm. Computed from the city's climate-normals indicator; the raw normals are stored alongside so users can judge by their own taste.
Higher is betterpleasant months/yearre-verified every 3650 days
Curated by SettleMetric
SettleMetric computation over climate-normals (NOAA/WMO 1991–2020, Gran Canaria/Aeropuerto 60030)
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2020
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Months whose 1991–2020 normals have mean daily maximum between 15°C and 28°C and precipitation below 150mm. All twelve qualify: the coldest month by day is January at 21.1°C and the warmest is August at 27.5°C, and the wettest month, December, brings 25.9mm. No month is excluded on either test, which is why the figure hits the ceiling of 12.
- Notes
- Only three other cities in this dataset score 12 — Mexico City, Bogotá and Funchal — and all three are far wetter (574–877mm a year against 132mm here). The score says nothing about wind: the trade winds blow across the city most of the year, and Saharan dust episodes (calima) close the picture for a few days at a time.
02Air quality (PM2.5)7.1µg/m³, annual mean PM2.59.2
What this measures
Annual mean fine-particulate (PM2.5) concentration for the city, latest available year. Anchors follow the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³ → 10) through the EU limit value territory (25 µg/m³ → 2). Preferred source: European Environment Agency city-level air quality data; outside Europe: WHO Ambient Air Quality Database or the national monitoring network.
Lower is betterµg/m³, annual mean PM2.5re-verified every 730 days
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2025
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Mean of the 2025 annual means of the three stations that the network's own annual report places in the municipality of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and runs on the Gobierno de Canarias network: Mercado Central 7.77 µg/m³ (95.7% valid hours), Néstor Álamo 6.81 (95.4%) and San Nicolás 6.60 (98.9%), computed from the network's own hourly workbook — (7.77 + 6.81 + 6.60) / 3 = 7.06. Jinámar fase 3 (4.68) is excluded: it is an industrial-type station on the ENDESA network beside the Jinámar power plant at the far southern edge of the municipality, classified "industrial" in the EEA station register while the other three are urban traffic or urban background. The computation was validated by reproducing the network's published 2024 annual means exactly from the 2024 hourly workbook: Mercado Central 11.10 against 11.1 published, Néstor Álamo 10.06 against 10.1, San Nicolás 9.65 against 9.7 and Jinámar 4.82 against 4.8, with the valid-hour percentages matching to the tenth of a point.
- Notes
- 2025 was much cleaner than 2024, when the same three stations averaged 10.27 µg/m³. The swing is Saharan dust: EU law lets member states discount natural contributions, and this network publishes the correction factors for exactly that purpose, but the figure here is the raw measured mean with nothing subtracted. Even so it is the lowest of any Spanish city in this dataset (Madrid 9, Valencia 12.4, Barcelona 14.0) — above the WHO 2021 guideline of 5 µg/m³, but below the EU limit of 25 and below the 10 that takes effect in 2030. The EEA European city air quality viewer, the criterion's first-choice source, has no static per-city export.
06
Safety
How safe daily life is, from official crime statistics.
01Homicide ratecountry-level0.7intentional homicides per 100,000/year9.6
What this measures
Intentional homicide victims per 100,000 population, latest available year. Country level: UNODC national series. City level: official municipal/police statistics where published; otherwise null (country value shown as country-level).
Lower is betterintentional homicides per 100,000/yearre-verified every 730 days
Open data
Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (ICCS 0101, per 100k)
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Notes
- Latest year 2024 = 0.72 per 100k (2023: 0.69; 2022: 0.69). Spain is among the safer EU countries for intentional homicide.
Eurostat — police-recorded offences by category (crim_off_cat, ICCS, unit P_HTHAB)
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 12, 2026
- Notes
- Police-recorded offences per 100,000 inhabitants, 2024 (ICCS categories: theft 0502, burglary 0501, robbery 0401, serious assault 020111, drug offences 0601, sexual violence 0301). Intentional homicide (0.72, same Eurostat 2024 series) is the scored safety headline shown separately. Recording practices and legal definitions differ between countries, so read the levels as context, not a league table.
01Theft451per 100k
02Burglary293per 100k
03Robbery130per 100k
04Serious assault59.1per 100k
05Drug offences44.3per 100k
06Sexual violence40.4per 100k
Police-recorded offences per 100,000 inhabitants, 2024 (ICCS categories: theft 0502, burglary 0501, robbery 0401, serious assault 020111, drug offences 0601, sexual violence 0301). Intentional homicide (0.72, same Eurostat 2024 series) is the scored safety headline shown separately. Recording practices and legal definitions differ between countries, so read the levels as context, not a league table.
OSCE ODIHR Hate Crime Reporting — Spain (official police-recorded)
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 15, 2026
- Notes
- OSCE ODIHR 2024: 1,808 hate crimes recorded by police; the bias breakdown sums exactly to the total, with 804 racist/xenophobic — the largest category (also anti-LGBTI 528, gender-based 181). ODIHR caveat: police figures include some offences outside the OSCE definition (e.g. incitement/slander) that could not be excluded; a further 147 ideology-motivated offences were excluded. Not comparable across countries.
1,808
recorded by police
804
racist / xenophobic
OSCE ODIHR 2024: 1,808 hate crimes recorded by police; the bias breakdown sums exactly to the total, with 804 racist/xenophobic — the largest category (also anti-LGBTI 528, gender-based 181). ODIHR caveat: police figures include some offences outside the OSCE definition (e.g. incitement/slander) that could not be excluded; a further 147 ideology-motivated offences were excluded. Not comparable across countries.
07
Infrastructure
Internet speed and how parcels get to your door.
01Domestic delivery qualitycountry-levelGood7.0
What this measures
Quality of in-country parcel delivery. excellent = nationwide next-day widely available, dense parcel-locker network, real-time tracking standard; good = 1–3 day delivery, lockers in major cities; basic = reliable but slow (3–7 days), mostly to-door or post-office pickup; poor = unreliable delivery, street addresses often unusable, informal workarounds common. Classified from official service/coverage data of the national postal operator and the two largest private carriers; inputs itemized in each value's method field.
Rated by category—re-verified every 730 days
Curated by SettleMetric
Correos official (network of delivery points, Citypaq lockers) + private carriers
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2025
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- Correos ~13,000 attention/pickup points (2,380 offices + rural points + 2,115+ Citypaq lockers, plus new Punto Correos convenience points, end-2025); SEUR, MRW, GLS, DHL, UPS, Correos Express operate nationwide with tracking; 24–48h delivery standard in cities. Locker density lower than the most locker-dense EU markets, so classified 'good' rather than 'excellent'.
- Notes
- Reliable, tracked 1–3 day domestic delivery with a growing parcel-locker network (Citypaq); to-door and PUDO pickup both common.
02International delivery easecountry-levelMinor friction7.0
What this measures
Ease of receiving goods from abroad. seamless = major international carriers deliver door-to-door, meaningful duty-free de-minimis threshold, customs clearance predictable in days; minor-friction = carriers present but low de-minimis, extra paperwork or routine delays; significant-friction = frequent customs holds, high brokerage fees, some marketplaces refuse to ship; unreliable = parcels regularly lost or blocked, informal import channels dominate. De-minimis thresholds and clearance rules from the national customs authority (official source, cite the regulation); carrier presence from carriers' official pages.
Rated by category—re-verified every 365 days
Official source
- Data as of
- Jul 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Notes
- Intra-EU shipping is frictionless (single market, all major carriers). Non-EU imports: the €150 duty-free threshold was removed EU-wide on 2026-07-01 — a temporary flat €3-per-item customs duty applies to ≤€150 consignments (until 2028); VAT already collected at checkout via IOSS since 2021. Predictable but no longer duty-free; DHL/UPS/FedEx/SEUR clear customs routinely.
03Internet speedcountry-level50.4Mbps, median fixed download5.0
What this measures
Median fixed-broadband download speed over the trailing 6 months from M-Lab NDT open data (CC0), aggregated at country or city level. Not comparable with Ookla figures (different test methodology) — do not mix sources within this criterion.
Higher is betterMbps, median fixed downloadre-verified every 365 days
Open data
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Spain
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2023
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- Median of 344 daily country medians, 9,298,577 tests (2023 — latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API; 2024 file is partial at 86 days with a similar 52.5 Mbps median).
- Notes
- M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads well below Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. Spain has extensive FTTH coverage; real advertised fibre speeds are far higher than this test-based median.
08
Healthcare
What comprehensive private medical cover costs.
01Private healthcare costcountry-level821USD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-old9.1
What this measures
Median of at least three publicly quoted annual premiums for comprehensive private medical insurance (outpatient + inpatient, ~$100k coverage, small deductible) for a healthy 35-year-old resident foreigner, from local and international insurers. Method field lists the insurers quoted.
Lower is betterUSD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-oldre-verified every 365 days
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jul 4, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- Comprehensive Spanish private health policies (póliza de salud) include outpatient AND hospitalization/inpatient by default. For a healthy 35-year-old, full-cover plans run ≈ €45–52/mo with modest copays and ≈ €65–90/mo copay-free (Sanitas, Adeslas, DKV — 2026 published ranges). Comprehensive midpoint ≈ €60/mo ≈ €720/yr ≈ $821 at EUR/USD 1.1399 (range ≈ $615–$1,230/yr).
- Notes
- Residents in the contributory system have public healthcare (Sistema Nacional de Salud); private cover is optional and widely bought for speed/choice. Premiums are quoted on request and vary by province (Madrid/Barcelona highest) and copay structure, so this is a curated market midpoint on a comprehensive (outpatient+inpatient) basis, not a single public quote.
09
Money & crypto
Crypto rules and how freely personal money moves.
01Crypto regulationcountry-levelLegal regulated8.0
What this measures
Own classification of the legal status of holding, trading and cashing out cryptocurrency for individuals: legal-friendly (legal with clear, favourable rules or explicit tax exemptions), legal-regulated (legal under standard licensing/AML and taxation), restricted (partial bans: payments or banking access prohibited), banned (holding/trading prohibited). Classified from national regulators' and central banks' official positions.
Rated by category—re-verified every 180 days
Official source
- Data as of
- Jul 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Notes
- Holding/trading legal for individuals. Gains on disposal (to fiat OR crypto-to-crypto swaps, which ARE taxable, unlike Poland) are savings income (renta del ahorro) taxed 19–30% under IRPF; FIFO applies. EU MiCA fully applicable in Spain from 1 July 2026 (CASPs licensed/supervised by CNMV and Banco de España); DAC8 reporting from 2026. Buying with fiat is not a taxable event.
02Financial control levelcountry-levelLow10.0
What this measures
Own composite of state control over personal money flows: currency/capital controls (IMF AREAER), restrictions on foreign accounts and transfers, mandatory income declaration scope for residents, cash payment limits, banking access for foreigners. Low = free movement of personal funds and easy non-resident banking; very-high = strict capital controls and pervasive reporting. Method field on each value lists the inputs used.
Rated by category—re-verified every 365 days
Curated by SettleMetric
Agencia Tributaria — límite de pagos en efectivo (Ley 11/2021); eurozone member, no capital controls
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- Composite: eurozone member, euro fully convertible, no currency/capital controls (free EU capital movement). Cash-payment limit €1,000 per transaction when a party acts as business/professional (Ley 11/2021), €10,000 for non-resident private individuals. Standard EU CRS/DAC bank reporting and DAC8 for crypto; Modelo 720 declaration of foreign assets >€50,000 exists (informational). No exchange restrictions on personal funds; non-residents can open bank accounts (NIE required).
- Notes
- Modelo 720 foreign-asset reporting (>€50,000) is an information duty; EU Court struck down its disproportionate penalty regime in 2022, penalties since aligned to general rules. Overall personal money movement is free (low control) by the criterion's definition.
10
Language
How far English gets you in daily life and services.
01English proficiencycountry-levelModerate5.0
What this measures
Own banding of how far English gets a resident in daily life (government offices, healthcare, housing, services). Informed by EF EPI band (research source, cited with attribution, not republished) plus official language status and service-sector realities. Values are our bands, not EF scores.
Rated by category—re-verified every 730 days
Research
EF EPI 2025 (Spain rank 36/123, score 540 — Moderate band)
- Data as of
- Nov 1, 2025
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Notes
- Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First; Spain score 540, Moderate band, weakest in speaking 462). English is workable in tourist/hospitality zones and among younger urban professionals, but limited in government offices, healthcare, and everyday services outside big cities — a moderate rating for daily life.
11
Education
International schooling options for families.
01International schools6accredited international schools, count6.3
What this measures
Count of international schools in the metro area accredited by or member of IB, CIS, COBIS, or an equivalent national-curriculum-abroad body (verified against the accreditor's public registry, not aggregator sites).
Higher is betteraccredited international schools, countre-verified every 730 days
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Aug 28, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Count of distinct schools in the Las Palmas metro area, each verified today against a reachable accreditor registry. NABSS, whose members are British-curriculum schools inspected and recognised for the province of Las Palmas: The British School of Gran Canaria (Tafira campus, plus a Maspalomas campus counted once), Canterbury School and Oakley College. AEFE (aefe.fr/fr/etablissements): Lycée français René Verneau / Liceo Francés Internacional de Gran Canaria, listed under "Las Palmas (Telde)". PASCH, the German Federal Foreign Office school network (pasch-net.de school portrait): Deutsche Schule Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Lomo del Drago s/n, 35018, school type "Deutsche Auslandsschule", 772 pupils and 76 teachers. IB: Colegio Arenas, IB school code 003583, an IB World School since 13 June 2007, read from an Internet Archive snapshot (2025-09-14) of its canonical ibo.org school page. = 6 distinct schools.
- Notes
- A verified FLOOR, not a census. ibo.org answers our requests with a Cloudflare challenge (HTTP 403), which was not circumvented, so schools whose only accreditation is the IB are probably missing: Colegio Heidelberg (IB code 000412) and Colegio Arenas Internacional (006015) both have ibo.org school pages, but neither has an Internet Archive snapshot recent enough to confirm current authorisation, so neither is counted. Canterbury School also holds IB code 062683 and is counted once, through NABSS. international-schools-database.com, used as the IB mirror for Madrid in this dataset, has no Las Palmas or Canary Islands page at all — /in/las-palmas, /in/gran-canaria and /in/canary-islands all fall back to the site home while the /in/madrid control resolves.
12
Demographics
Who else lives here — the share of foreign residents and the largest national communities, from official statistics.
Openness to foreignerscountry-levelVery openGallup MAI 7.44/9 · 2016 · WVS w7 · KCL 13% reject foreign neighbours
What this measures
How accepting the resident population is of migrants and foreigners — the inverse of xenophobia, a real concern for someone relocating. Our own five-band reading (very-open / open / moderate / reserved / low) informed primarily by the Gallup Migrant Acceptance Index (0–9 scale: three questions on migrants living in the country, becoming neighbours, and marrying into the family; 2019 wave), cross-checked where available with the World Values Survey wave 7 / European Values Study 2017 question on whether people would not want immigrants or foreign workers as neighbours (a higher share = more hostile). Banding guide against the Gallup 0–9 score: ≥7.0 very-open, 5.5–7.0 open, 4.0–5.5 moderate, 2.5–4.0 reserved, below 2.5 low (the 2019 global average of 5.21 sits in 'moderate'). Country level only: no credible city-level survey of attitudes to foreigners exists, so on city pages the country reading is shown as country context. Gallup is a research source cited with attribution, not republished in bulk; the raw index score/year and any cross-check figure are carried inside each value. Value shape: { band, gallupMai?, gallupYear?, unwantedNeighborPct?, unwantedNeighborSource? }. Display-only: attitudinal, survey-based and ~2019 vintage, so it is shown as honest context and never folded into the composite score.
Reference data—re-verified every 1825 days
Research
- Data as of
- Aug 23, 2017
- Verified
- Jul 15, 2026
- Notes
- Gallup MAI 7.44/9 (2016/2017 wave) — among the 20 most-accepting countries worldwide. Cross-check — World Values Survey wave 7 (via King’s College London’s cross-country analysis): 13% said they would not want immigrants or foreign workers as neighbours (mid-range for Western Europe). Band: very-open.
Official source
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- 37,635 foreign nationals out of 386,153 residents on 1 January 2026 = 9.75%, read through the INE JSON API (servicios.ine.es/wstempus/js/ES/DATOS_TABLA/79544). The basis is current citizenship, the same basis as the 14.1% on the Spain country page, so the two are comparable.
- Notes
- Below the national figure, which is the opposite of what the city's reputation as a remote-work and winter-migration hub suggests. The companion INE table on place of birth (79545) shows the other side of it: 66,533 residents, 17.2%, were born abroad — 28,898 more than hold a foreign passport, a gap made up largely of foreign-born residents who have since taken Spanish nationality. INE does not publish a country-by-country split at municipal level in this series, so no nationality-breakdown is recorded for the city; the country page carries the national one.
Largest communities of foreign residents6,911,971 total
INE — Censo Anual de Población, foreign population by nationality, 1 Jan 2025
Official source
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2025
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- INE 1 Jan 2025 foreign-population-by-nationality counts; shares = count ÷ 6,911,971 total foreign nationals. Top 10 shown; the register covers many more nationalities.
- Notes
- Latin American (Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Honduras, Ecuador) and Moroccan communities dominate, plus large Romanian and Italian EU groups. Ukrainians (177,929) include temporary-protection beneficiaries registered in the padrón.
01Morocco14%968,999
02Colombia9.8%676,534
03Romania8.8%609,270
04Italy5.5%377,809
05Venezuela5%345,777
06United Kingdom3.9%266,462
07China3.4%238,372
08Peru2.9%202,105
09Ukraine2.6%177,929
10Honduras2.1%148,585
Latin American (Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Honduras, Ecuador) and Moroccan communities dominate, plus large Romanian and Italian EU groups. Ukrainians (177,929) include temporary-protection beneficiaries registered in the padrón.
13
How you can stay
How you can legally enter and stay. These apply across Spain.
All requirements & citizenship filter- 01International teleworking authorization (digital nomad visa)Digital nomad visaAll except EU citizensincome ≥ 2,849 EUR/monthNon-EU national working remotely for companies outside Spain; work for Spanish-based firms may not exceed 20% of total professional activity1 yr +→ PR path
- 02Residence and work authorization — self-employment (cuenta propia)Freelance permitAll except EU citizensincome ≥ 600 EUR/monthBusiness plan validated with a positive viability report from a recognized self-employed workers' association (ATA, UPTA, CIAE, etc.)1 yr +→ PR path
- 03Non-lucrative residence visa (passive income)Temporary residenceAll except EU citizensincome ≥ 28,800 EUR/yearProve passive income or sufficient savings ≥ 400% IPREM (pension, rents, dividends, savings) — NOT from working in Spain1 yr +→ PR path
- 04EU Blue Card (highly-qualified employment)Temporary residenceAll except EU citizensincome ≥ 33,000 EUR/yearBinding job offer / employment contract with a Spanish employer in a highly-qualified role3 yrs +→ PR path
- 05EU/EEA citizens — registration of residenceSpecial programEU citizensNo visa or permit needed; full labour-market access and self-employment on the same terms as Spanish nationals10 yrs +→ PR path
- 06Visa-free stay (Schengen 90/180)Visa-free stayUS citizens, UK citizens, Ukrainian citizensPassport of an EU visa-exempt (Annex II) country; for Ukraine and other Eastern Partnership states: biometric passports only3 mo
14
What you'd pay in taxes
The tax schemes a freelancer can choose from. Rules are national, the same in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria as anywhere in Spain.
Full schemes & calculator- 01Beckham regime — special impatriate tax (flat 24%)progressive on revenue: 24% up to 600,000, 47% above24.0%burden at €60k
- 02Autónomo — estimación directa simplificada (RETA + IRPF)fixed per month by annual profit: 205.88 up to 8,040; 226.47 up to 10,800; 267.65 up to 14,000; 299.56 up to 15,600; 302.65 up to 18,000; 302.65 up to 20,400; 360.29 up to 22,200; 380.88 up to 24,360; 401.47 up to 27,960; 427.21 up to 33,120; 452.94 up to 38,280; 478.68 up to 43,440; 504.41 up to 48,600; 545.59 up to 72,000; 607.35 above (deductible from profit) + 5% of profit (deductible from profit)32.1%burden at €60k
See what you would keep
Your income against Spain's real tax schemes — the same engine as the full calculator.
- 1 Beckham regime — special impatriate tax (flat 24%)45,600 EURnet/year24.0% burden
- 2 Autónomo — estimación directa simplificada (RETA + IRPF)40,767 EURnet/year32.1% burden
15
Who is Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for?
The same place reads differently depending on why you move. Each lens pulls the facts that matter most for that plan — with sources, and the trade-offs stated plainly.
Contract or freelance in tech, billing clients abroad.
Works in your favour
Cost of living (single, excl. rent)$941/mo
INE — Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares 2024 (household budget survey), rent stripped
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- INE EPF 2024 average household spending by COICOP group (total €34,044/hh). Housing group €11,029 reduced to utilities only (imputed rent €9,299 removed), leaving a non-rent basket of €24,746/hh. Divided by average household size 2.50 (€34,044 ÷ €13,626 per-person) → €9,905/person/yr = €825/mo; converted at EUR/USD 1.1399 (ECB 2026-07-02) → $941/mo. Cross-checked against Eurostat comparative price levels (Spain ≈ 92% of EU27; ≈ 1.28× Poland, whose figure is $753).
- Notes
- National per-capita non-rent basket. A person living alone typically spends somewhat more per head (fixed costs not shared) — this figure is the reproducible household-survey floor. City files (Madrid/Barcelona) run higher; Valencia/smaller cities lower.
Domestic delivery qualityGood
Correos official (network of delivery points, Citypaq lockers) + private carriers
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2025
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- Correos ~13,000 attention/pickup points (2,380 offices + rural points + 2,115+ Citypaq lockers, plus new Punto Correos convenience points, end-2025); SEUR, MRW, GLS, DHL, UPS, Correos Express operate nationwide with tracking; 24–48h delivery standard in cities. Locker density lower than the most locker-dense EU markets, so classified 'good' rather than 'excellent'.
- Notes
- Reliable, tracked 1–3 day domestic delivery with a growing parcel-locker network (Citypaq); to-door and PUDO pickup both common.
Watch-outs
Freelancer tax burden28.4%
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- Best realistically-eligible scheme for a solo IT freelancer = es-autonomo-estimacion-directa at €60,000 revenue with 10% (€6,000) expenses. RETA cuota tramo 14 (base 1,732.03 × 31.5%) = 6,547.08/yr; difícil-justificación 2,000 (notional); IRPF base 39,902.92 (after mínimo personal 5,550) → 10,465.58. Total levies 17,012.66 / 60,000 = 28.4%. The Beckham regime (flat 24%) is NOT open to ordinary freelancers, only to eligible employed/relocated impatriates — see es-beckham-impatriate.
Internet speed50 Mbps
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Spain
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2023
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- Median of 344 daily country medians, 9,298,577 tests (2023 — latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API; 2024 file is partial at 86 days with a similar 52.5 Mbps median).
- Notes
- M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads well below Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. Spain has extensive FTTH coverage; real advertised fibre speeds are far higher than this test-based median.
English proficiencyModerate
EF EPI 2025 (Spain rank 36/123, score 540 — Moderate band)
Research
- Data as of
- Nov 1, 2025
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Notes
- Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First; Spain score 540, Moderate band, weakest in speaking 462). English is workable in tourist/hospitality zones and among younger urban professionals, but limited in government offices, healthcare, and everyday services outside big cities — a moderate rating for daily life.
Relocating with a partner and school-age children.
Works in your favour
Homicide rate0.72/100k
Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (ICCS 0101, per 100k)
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Notes
- Latest year 2024 = 0.72 per 100k (2023: 0.69; 2022: 0.69). Spain is among the safer EU countries for intentional homicide.
Private healthcare cost$821/yr
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jul 4, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- Comprehensive Spanish private health policies (póliza de salud) include outpatient AND hospitalization/inpatient by default. For a healthy 35-year-old, full-cover plans run ≈ €45–52/mo with modest copays and ≈ €65–90/mo copay-free (Sanitas, Adeslas, DKV — 2026 published ranges). Comprehensive midpoint ≈ €60/mo ≈ €720/yr ≈ $821 at EUR/USD 1.1399 (range ≈ $615–$1,230/yr).
- Notes
- Residents in the contributory system have public healthcare (Sistema Nacional de Salud); private cover is optional and widely bought for speed/choice. Premiums are quoted on request and vary by province (Madrid/Barcelona highest) and copay structure, so this is a curated market midpoint on a comprehensive (outpatient+inpatient) basis, not a single public quote.
Air quality (PM2.5)7.1 µg/m³
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2025
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Mean of the 2025 annual means of the three stations that the network's own annual report places in the municipality of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and runs on the Gobierno de Canarias network: Mercado Central 7.77 µg/m³ (95.7% valid hours), Néstor Álamo 6.81 (95.4%) and San Nicolás 6.60 (98.9%), computed from the network's own hourly workbook — (7.77 + 6.81 + 6.60) / 3 = 7.06. Jinámar fase 3 (4.68) is excluded: it is an industrial-type station on the ENDESA network beside the Jinámar power plant at the far southern edge of the municipality, classified "industrial" in the EEA station register while the other three are urban traffic or urban background. The computation was validated by reproducing the network's published 2024 annual means exactly from the 2024 hourly workbook: Mercado Central 11.10 against 11.1 published, Néstor Álamo 10.06 against 10.1, San Nicolás 9.65 against 9.7 and Jinámar 4.82 against 4.8, with the valid-hour percentages matching to the tenth of a point.
- Notes
- 2025 was much cleaner than 2024, when the same three stations averaged 10.27 µg/m³. The swing is Saharan dust: EU law lets member states discount natural contributions, and this network publishes the correction factors for exactly that purpose, but the figure here is the raw measured mean with nothing subtracted. Even so it is the lowest of any Spanish city in this dataset (Madrid 9, Valencia 12.4, Barcelona 14.0) — above the WHO 2021 guideline of 5 µg/m³, but below the EU limit of 25 and below the 10 that takes effect in 2030. The EEA European city air quality viewer, the criterion's first-choice source, has no static per-city export.
Watch-outs
International schools6
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Aug 28, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Count of distinct schools in the Las Palmas metro area, each verified today against a reachable accreditor registry. NABSS, whose members are British-curriculum schools inspected and recognised for the province of Las Palmas: The British School of Gran Canaria (Tafira campus, plus a Maspalomas campus counted once), Canterbury School and Oakley College. AEFE (aefe.fr/fr/etablissements): Lycée français René Verneau / Liceo Francés Internacional de Gran Canaria, listed under "Las Palmas (Telde)". PASCH, the German Federal Foreign Office school network (pasch-net.de school portrait): Deutsche Schule Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Lomo del Drago s/n, 35018, school type "Deutsche Auslandsschule", 772 pupils and 76 teachers. IB: Colegio Arenas, IB school code 003583, an IB World School since 13 June 2007, read from an Internet Archive snapshot (2025-09-14) of its canonical ibo.org school page. = 6 distinct schools.
- Notes
- A verified FLOOR, not a census. ibo.org answers our requests with a Cloudflare challenge (HTTP 403), which was not circumvented, so schools whose only accreditation is the IB are probably missing: Colegio Heidelberg (IB code 000412) and Colegio Arenas Internacional (006015) both have ibo.org school pages, but neither has an Internet Archive snapshot recent enough to confirm current authorisation, so neither is counted. Canterbury School also holds IB code 062683 and is counted once, through NABSS. international-schools-database.com, used as the IB mirror for Madrid in this dataset, has no Las Palmas or Canary Islands page at all — /in/las-palmas, /in/gran-canaria and /in/canary-islands all fall back to the site home while the /in/madrid control resolves.
Optimising tax, banking and crypto rules.
Works in your favour
Crypto regulationLegal regulated
Official source
- Data as of
- Jul 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Notes
- Holding/trading legal for individuals. Gains on disposal (to fiat OR crypto-to-crypto swaps, which ARE taxable, unlike Poland) are savings income (renta del ahorro) taxed 19–30% under IRPF; FIFO applies. EU MiCA fully applicable in Spain from 1 July 2026 (CASPs licensed/supervised by CNMV and Banco de España); DAC8 reporting from 2026. Buying with fiat is not a taxable event.
Financial control levelLow
Agencia Tributaria — límite de pagos en efectivo (Ley 11/2021); eurozone member, no capital controls
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- Composite: eurozone member, euro fully convertible, no currency/capital controls (free EU capital movement). Cash-payment limit €1,000 per transaction when a party acts as business/professional (Ley 11/2021), €10,000 for non-resident private individuals. Standard EU CRS/DAC bank reporting and DAC8 for crypto; Modelo 720 declaration of foreign assets >€50,000 exists (informational). No exchange restrictions on personal funds; non-residents can open bank accounts (NIE required).
- Notes
- Modelo 720 foreign-asset reporting (>€50,000) is an information duty; EU Court struck down its disproportionate penalty regime in 2022, penalties since aligned to general rules. Overall personal money movement is free (low control) by the criterion's definition.
Watch-outs
Freelancer tax burden28.4%
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- Best realistically-eligible scheme for a solo IT freelancer = es-autonomo-estimacion-directa at €60,000 revenue with 10% (€6,000) expenses. RETA cuota tramo 14 (base 1,732.03 × 31.5%) = 6,547.08/yr; difícil-justificación 2,000 (notional); IRPF base 39,902.92 (after mínimo personal 5,550) → 10,465.58. Total levies 17,012.66 / 60,000 = 28.4%. The Beckham regime (flat 24%) is NOT open to ordinary freelancers, only to eligible employed/relocated impatriates — see es-beckham-impatriate.
Prioritising safety, air, and an easy daily life.
Works in your favour
Homicide rate0.72/100k
Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (ICCS 0101, per 100k)
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Notes
- Latest year 2024 = 0.72 per 100k (2023: 0.69; 2022: 0.69). Spain is among the safer EU countries for intentional homicide.
Air quality (PM2.5)7.1 µg/m³
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2025
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Mean of the 2025 annual means of the three stations that the network's own annual report places in the municipality of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and runs on the Gobierno de Canarias network: Mercado Central 7.77 µg/m³ (95.7% valid hours), Néstor Álamo 6.81 (95.4%) and San Nicolás 6.60 (98.9%), computed from the network's own hourly workbook — (7.77 + 6.81 + 6.60) / 3 = 7.06. Jinámar fase 3 (4.68) is excluded: it is an industrial-type station on the ENDESA network beside the Jinámar power plant at the far southern edge of the municipality, classified "industrial" in the EEA station register while the other three are urban traffic or urban background. The computation was validated by reproducing the network's published 2024 annual means exactly from the 2024 hourly workbook: Mercado Central 11.10 against 11.1 published, Néstor Álamo 10.06 against 10.1, San Nicolás 9.65 against 9.7 and Jinámar 4.82 against 4.8, with the valid-hour percentages matching to the tenth of a point.
- Notes
- 2025 was much cleaner than 2024, when the same three stations averaged 10.27 µg/m³. The swing is Saharan dust: EU law lets member states discount natural contributions, and this network publishes the correction factors for exactly that purpose, but the figure here is the raw measured mean with nothing subtracted. Even so it is the lowest of any Spanish city in this dataset (Madrid 9, Valencia 12.4, Barcelona 14.0) — above the WHO 2021 guideline of 5 µg/m³, but below the EU limit of 25 and below the 10 that takes effect in 2030. The EEA European city air quality viewer, the criterion's first-choice source, has no static per-city export.
Climate comfort12/12 mo
SettleMetric computation over climate-normals (NOAA/WMO 1991–2020, Gran Canaria/Aeropuerto 60030)
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2020
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Months whose 1991–2020 normals have mean daily maximum between 15°C and 28°C and precipitation below 150mm. All twelve qualify: the coldest month by day is January at 21.1°C and the warmest is August at 27.5°C, and the wettest month, December, brings 25.9mm. No month is excluded on either test, which is why the figure hits the ceiling of 12.
- Notes
- Only three other cities in this dataset score 12 — Mexico City, Bogotá and Funchal — and all three are far wetter (574–877mm a year against 132mm here). The score says nothing about wind: the trade winds blow across the city most of the year, and Saharan dust episodes (calima) close the picture for a few days at a time.
Cost of living (single, excl. rent)$941/mo
INE — Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares 2024 (household budget survey), rent stripped
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- INE EPF 2024 average household spending by COICOP group (total €34,044/hh). Housing group €11,029 reduced to utilities only (imputed rent €9,299 removed), leaving a non-rent basket of €24,746/hh. Divided by average household size 2.50 (€34,044 ÷ €13,626 per-person) → €9,905/person/yr = €825/mo; converted at EUR/USD 1.1399 (ECB 2026-07-02) → $941/mo. Cross-checked against Eurostat comparative price levels (Spain ≈ 92% of EU27; ≈ 1.28× Poland, whose figure is $753).
- Notes
- National per-capita non-rent basket. A person living alone typically spends somewhat more per head (fixed costs not shared) — this figure is the reproducible household-survey floor. City files (Madrid/Barcelona) run higher; Valencia/smaller cities lower.
16
Video reviews
Hand-picked YouTube tours and living-here guides — each one checked to still play.
Will you love or hate Las Palmas in Gran Canaria?
CheckedHolidays · An honest verdict on the city
17
Compare Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
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