International schools in Spain: which towns have one nearby

From the Ministry of Education's register of foreign-curriculum schools: 184 of the 333 towns have one within 10 km, 47 are more than 50 km from the nearest. Where the British, American, French and German schools are, and affordable coastal towns with a school, a hospital and an airport.

Spain's Ministry of Education keeps a register of every school authorised to teach a foreign curriculum. After removing business schools, academies and the like, 334 schools for children remain (the method page has the rules). Measured from each town centre: 184 towns have an international school within 10 km, 255 within 25 km, and 47 towns are more than 50 km from any. By curriculum, within 25 km of the centre: British 194 towns, American 112 towns, French 149 towns, German 100 towns, Nordic 44 towns and Dutch 21 towns.

Where the schools cluster

Las Rozas de Madrid has 76 international schools within 25 km. The clusters are Madrid, Barcelona and its coast, the Costa del Sol, the Costa Blanca, Valencia, Mallorca and the Canary resorts. Columns show the distance to the nearest school of each curriculum (within 100 km).

Family shortlist: a school, a hospital and an airport, by the sea

Coastal towns (within 10 km of the sea) with an international school within 10 km, a public hospital within 25 km and an airport within 60 km, cheapest first. 87 towns qualify.

Far from any international school

Mostly inland Spain, the north-west and the smaller islands. Families there use Spanish state or private schools, which is what most children of foreign residents do anyway; a Spanish school also means Spanish friends.

What the register does not tell you

Quality. Spain publishes no results per school, so we rank nothing; the register says what a school is allowed to teach, not how well. Fees, waiting lists and whether the school runs to age 18 vary; the place pages list each town's nearest schools with their levels (infant, primary, secondary). Visit before you move.

How we did this

Ministry of Education, Registro Estatal de Centros Docentes no Universitarios, type "Centro Docente Privado Extranjero en España", October 2026; schools for children kept as described on the method page, schools for one nationality excluded from distances; located with CartoCiudad; straight-line distances from the town centre. Curriculum from the register's label or the school's name. Other columns as on the place pages. Built 2026-10-18.