Alacant/Alicante, Alicante: population, climate, prices

Alicante, Valencian Community · 366,221 inhabitants (1 Jan 2025)

Living in Alacant/Alicante

Alacant/Alicante is a city of 366,221 inhabitants on the coast in Alicante (Valencian Community), with cool winters and hot, dry summers (January nights 7.0°C, August afternoons 31.5°C). The nearest international school (British School Of Alicante, British curriculum) is 4.6 km away. It is one of the sunniest places in Spain: 8.2 hours of sunshine a day on average. Year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US leave from Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC), 10 km away. Against that, recorded crime is high (62.1 per 1,000 residents; Spain about 41); August is humid (dew point 20.0°C), so the heat feels sticky; 77 nights a year stay above 20 °C, which makes sleeping without air conditioning hard in summer. Around 2055, Spain's official climate scenarios put August afternoons here at about 32.5°C and the number of warm nights at 94 a year.

Each sentence is chosen by where the town ranks among the 333 places compared on that measure (top or bottom 20%); the numbers are the ones in the sections below, from the sources named there.

About Alacant/Alicante

Alicante, in Spanish, or Alacant, in Valencian, is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historical Mediterranean port. With a population of 358,608 as of 2024, it is the 2nd-largest city in the Valencian Community and the 10th-largest in Spain.

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Read more on Wikipedia →

Buying: appraised price

2,191 €/m²

Last 4 quarters to 2026 Q2, 4,959 valuations. 1 year 13.5%, 5 years 82.3%.

Renting: typical apartment

608 €/month

7.11 €/m² per month for a typical 89 m² (2024 contracts). 5 years 31.3%. Houses: 862 €/month.

Safety: recorded crime

62.1 per 1,000

Conventional crime 2025 (Spain ≈ 41). Home burglaries 1.85, violent robbery 2.44, theft 22.1 per 1,000. 1 year 10.6%.

Sea

0.9 km

Straight-line distance from the town centre to the coast.

Getting there

Nearest airport: Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC), 10 km, 19,950,394 passengers in 2025, 127 destinations
Direct to Amsterdam: Alicante airport, 10 km (year-round)
Direct to Brussels (Zaventem or Charleroi): Alicante airport, 10 km (year-round)
Direct to London: Alicante airport, 10 km (year-round)
Direct to Paris: Alicante airport, 10 km (year-round)
Direct to Frankfurt: Alicante airport, 10 km (year-round)
Direct to the US: Madrid airport, 357 km (year-round); summer only from Palma, 309 km
Train station: Alicante/Alacant-Terminal (1.1 km)
Fastest train to Madrid: 2 h 17
Fastest train to Barcelona: 5 h 18

Distances are straight-line. Flights as listed in airport route tables on 4 Oct 2026; train times from Renfe's timetable (Iryo and Ouigo not included).

Healthcare

Nearest public general hospital: Hospital General Universitario Dr. Balmis (in town, 807 beds)
Nearest large public hospital (500+ beds, most specialties): Hospital General Universitario Dr. Balmis (in town, 807 beds)
Nearest private general hospital: Clínica Vistahermosa Grupo Ha (in town, 106 beds)
General hospitals within 25 km: 8
Waiting time for planned surgery (Valencian Community): 88 days on average; 16.1% wait more than 6 months (Spain: 121 days)
Waiting time for a first specialist visit: 95 days on average; 53.7% wait more than 60 days (Spain: 102 days)

Ministry of Health, National Hospital Catalogue 2025 (situation on 31 Dec 2024); general hospitals only. Distances are straight-line to the hospital's municipality. Residents registered in Spain use public hospitals; non-EU applicants for some visas must have private health insurance. Waiting times are for the whole region (public health service, 31 Dec 2025), as reported by each region to the Ministry of Health (SISLE-SNS); private insurance usually avoids most of the wait.

International schools

Nearest international school: BRITISH SCHOOL OF ALICANTE (British), Alicante/Alacant, 4.6 km
International schools within 25 km: 6
Nearest by curriculum (within 100 km): British 4.6 km · American 69 km · French 9.0 km · Nordic 35 km

Within 30 km (up to five):

School	Curriculum	Levels in the register	Where	Distance
BRITISH SCHOOL OF ALICANTE	British	infant, primary, secondary	Alicante/Alacant	4.6 km
ENGLISH SCHOOL	British	infant, primary, secondary	Mutxamel	7.0 km
MAR DE ESTRELLAS	curriculum not stated	infant, primary	Mutxamel	7.9 km
LYCÉE FRANÇAIS D'ALICANTE PIERRE DESCHAMPS	French	infant, primary, secondary	El Campello	9.0 km
ESPACIO VIVO SCHOOL	curriculum not stated	infant, primary	Elche/Elx	17 km

Ministry of Education, register of non-university schools (RCD), October 2026: every school authorised to teach a foreign curriculum in Spain, without the business, arts and hairdressing schools in the same list and without schools for one nationality (Japanese, Libyan, Iraqi, Russian, Panamanian). Curriculum as labelled in the register or clear from the school's name; levels as listed in the register, which leaves them out for some schools. Straight-line distance from the town centre. We do not rate schools: visit, and ask about accreditation and fees.

Who lives here

Population trend: +11.4% in ten years (328,648 in 2015, 366,221 in 2025)
Age: 19.6% aged 65 or over, 15.1% under 16 (2022; Spain: 20.0% and 14.9%)
Local income: 13,681 € net per person per year (2023), 91% of the Spanish average; median 17,150 € per adult-equivalent
Foreign residents: 15.0% of all residents; 5.2% of residents aged 65+ (2022)
Largest nationalities: Colombian 1.6%, Moroccan 1.1%, Italian 1.0%, Russian 0.8%, Venezuelan 0.7%; all EU citizens 3.0% (share of all residents, 1 Jan 2022; the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and the Nordic countries are not published per town)

INE: population register (Padrón) and household income atlas. Local income is a rough guide to local prices and affluence; Spain publishes no official cost-of-living index for towns.

Within a 10-minute walk of the centre

Everyday essentials on foot: 6 of 6 ✓ 15+ food shops ✓ 3+ pharmacies ✓ 25+ cafés, bars or restaurants ✓ 2+ parks ✓ 3+ bus stops ✓ 2+ libraries, theatres, cinemas or cultural centres
Lively centre: 83 out of 100: how much there is compared with the other 332 places (big cities score highest)

56 food shops (supermarkets, bakeries, greengrocers…)
25 pharmacies
10 doctors, clinics or hospitals
363 cafés, bars and restaurants
73 parks and gardens
89 bus stops
9 libraries, theatres, cinemas, cultural centres
1 market places

Counted in OpenStreetMap within 800 m of the town centre, taken as the point OpenStreetMap marks as the town's centre, moved at most 500 m to the busiest nearby spot (for a few spread-out municipalities without such a point: the busiest spot near the official coordinate). OpenStreetMap is kept by volunteers: very complete in most Spanish towns, thinner in some. “Everyday essentials” only asks whether the basics are there, so a small town can score 6 of 6; “lively centre” ranks each count among all 333 places and averages them, so it mostly reflects size. Large municipalities with several centres (Lorca, Oleiros, Ames…) can score low because their official centre is a small village.

Holiday lets and beaches

Tourist apartments: 2,854 (1.52% of all homes; Spain 1.28%), 3.4 tourist beds per 100 residents (May 2026)
Blue Flag beaches: 4 in town; 23 within 30 km

Tourist apartments: INE count of homes listed on Airbnb, Booking and Vrbo. A high share means busy summers and pressure on rents. Blue Flag 2026 (ADEAC): beaches meeting water-quality, safety and service standards; this includes some lake and river beaches. Distances are straight-line between town centres.

Water

River basin: Jucar
Reservoirs now: 51.9% full (week of 2026-09-29); the same week in the previous 10 years averaged 40.0%
Worst week 2016-2025: 24.9% full (2017-12-05)
Weeks below 40% full, 2016-2025: 37% of all weeks

Ministry for the Ecological Transition, weekly hydrological bulletin: all reservoirs over 5 hm³ in the basin. Low reservoirs are what led to drought restrictions in Catalonia (2023-24) and Andalusia (2022-24). Some basins (Segura) also rely on transfers and desalination, so their reservoir level alone overstates the risk of taps running dry.

What the rankings say

InterNations Expat City Ranking 2025: 3 (source)
OCU residents' survey 2026 (15 largest cities): 9 (source)
idealista: best places to retire (2026): listed (source)
MySpainVisa: best places to retire (2026): listed (source)

Climate

● average daily high ● average nightly low ■ rainy days (1 mm or more). These are 1991-2020 averages, not record temperatures: a hot spell will be warmer and a cold night colder than these values.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Average daily high, °C	17.5	18.1	20.0	22.0	24.9	28.7	31.0	31.5	28.9	25.4	20.9	18.3
Average nightly low, °C	7.0	7.5	9.5	11.8	15.0	18.9	21.7	22.2	19.2	15.2	10.7	7.9
Rain, mm	24	17	29	29	19	8	3	13	51	33	33	25
Rainy days (1 mm or more)	3.1	2.6	3.8	3.8	2.9	1.4	0.4	1.5	3.4	4.2	4.0	3.6
Sunshine, hours per day	6.2	6.8	7.6	8.6	9.7	10.7	11.1	10.3	8.7	7.4	6.2	5.6
Humidity, %	66	65	64	62	62	61	63	65	68	69	67	68
Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.9	7.0	20.0	23.8	7.8	1.4	0.0	0.0

The year in numbers

Köppen climate class: BSh: Hot semi-arid
Summer mugginess (August average dew point): 20.0°C – oppressive
Typical hottest day of the year: 37.1°C
Typical coldest night of the year: 1.0°C
Days reaching 25 °C / 77 °F: 161 a year (estimate)
Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F: 61 a year
Days reaching 35 °C / 95 °F: 5 a year (estimate)
Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more): 77 a year (estimate)
Frost nights (0 °C / 32 °F or less): 0 a year
Overcast days: 44 a year
Average humidity: 65%

Dew point measures how sticky the air feels: under 13 °C (55 °F) feels dry, 16-18 °C (61-64 °F) muggy, over 18 °C oppressive. For comparison, Davis, California (also Köppen Csa) has a summer dew point of about 11 °C. "Typical hottest day" is the 1991-2020 average of each year's single hottest day. Estimates are counted from daily satellite data adjusted to this place's averages; checked against AEMET's own 30 °C counts they are usually within 4 days a year.

1991-2020 averages, AEMET station ALACANT/ALICANTE (8025), 3.1 km away; temperatures adjusted to the town's altitude. © AEMET.

Around 2055 (projection)

August average high: 32.5°C: +0.9 °C compared with today (models range from 0.3 °C to 1.9 °C)
Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more): 94 a year, +16 (models: +6 to +29)
Frost nights: 0 a year (+0)
Rainy days (1 mm or more): 31 a year, -4 (models: -12 to +1)
Rain amount: -7% over the year: summer -23%, winter -4%
Sunlight reaching the ground: +0.0% (models: -0.5% to +0.8%); no official sunshine-hours projection exists

Spain's official climate scenarios (Escenarios-PNACC 2024, AEMET regionalisation of 11 global climate models, ~5 km grid), middle emissions scenario SSP2-4.5: average change from 2011-2040 to 2041-2070, added to today's 1991-2020 values above. The range shows the lowest and highest of the 11 models. Rain: the same models regionalised by CSIC (DeepESD). Sunlight: EURO-CORDEX regional models (RCP4.5). A projection, not a forecast. Read: Spain around 2055, region by region →

Questions people ask

Where is Alacant/Alicante?

Alacant/Alicante is in the province of Alicante (Valencian Community), Spain, on the coast. The nearest airport is Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC), 10 km away.

How many people live in Alacant/Alicante?

366,221 registered residents on 1 January 2025 (INE), +11.4% in ten years.

What is the climate of Alacant/Alicante?

January afternoons average 17.5°C and nights 7.0°C; August afternoons 31.5°C. 8.2 hours of sunshine a day and 35 rainy days a year (AEMET 1991-2020).

Is Alacant/Alicante safe?

Recorded conventional crime in Alacant/Alicante was 62.1 offences per 1,000 residents in 2025, high for Spain (national rate about 41). Home burglaries: 1.85 per 1,000.

How hot is Alacant/Alicante in summer?

August afternoons average 31.5°C (1991-2020), with 77 nights a year above 20 °C and 5 days of 35 °C or more.

How cold is Alacant/Alicante in winter?

January afternoons average 17.5°C and January nights 7.0°C, with 0 frost nights a year.

Is there a hospital in Alacant/Alicante?

Yes: Hospital General Universitario Dr. Balmis, a public general hospital with 807 beds. Planned surgery in Valencian Community waits 88 days on average.

Can you fly direct from Alacant/Alicante to Amsterdam or London all year?

Yes. Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC) (10 km away) has year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US.

What does it cost to rent or buy in Alacant/Alicante?

A typical apartment (89 m²) rented for 608 € a month in 2024 contracts. Homes were appraised at 2,191 €/m² on average over the last four quarters, 82.3% in five years.

Nearby and similar towns

Nearest towns in this comparison: Sant Vicent del Raspeig/San Vicente del Raspeig (Alicante, 7 km), Sant Joan d'Alacant (Alicante, 7 km), Mutxamel (Alicante, 8 km), El Campello (Alicante, 12 km), Santa Pola (Alicante, 18 km)
Most similar towns (summer heat, winter nights, rainy days, home prices, size): Elx/Elche (Alicante), Sabadell (Barcelona), Almería (Almería), Málaga (Málaga), València (Valencia)

Distances are straight-line between town centres. Similarity is the distance in standardised values of the five measures.