Arcos de la Frontera, Cádiz: population, climate, prices
Cádiz, Andalusia · 31,267 inhabitants (1 Jan 2025)
Living in Arcos de la Frontera
Arcos de la Frontera is a small town of 31,267 inhabitants 40 km from the sea in Cádiz (Andalusia), with cool winters and very hot summers (January nights 4.3°C, August afternoons 33.5°C). Recorded crime is low: 19.1 offences per 1,000 residents in 2025 (Spain about 41). It is one of the sunniest places in Spain: 8.4 hours of sunshine a day on average. Homes are cheap for Spain: appraised at 1,225 €/m², lower than 83% of the towns; a typical apartment rents for 321 € a month. Against that, public waiting lists in Andalusia are long (173 days on average for planned surgery); the nearest public hospital is 28 km away in Jerez de la Frontera; the centre is thin on everyday shops and services (3 of 6 essentials within a 10-minute walk). Around 2055, Spain's official climate scenarios put August afternoons here at about 34.5°C and the number of warm nights at 21 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 Arcos de la Frontera
Arcos de la Frontera is a town and municipality in the Sierra de Cádiz comarca, province of Cádiz, in Andalusia, Spain.
From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Read more on Wikipedia →
Getting there
- Nearest airport
- Jerez Airport (XRY), 23 km, 884,539 passengers in 2025, 25 destinations
- Direct to Amsterdam
- Seville airport, 75 km (year-round)
- Direct to Brussels (Zaventem or Charleroi)
- Seville airport, 75 km (year-round); summer only from Jerez, 23 km
- Direct to London
- Seville airport, 75 km (year-round); summer only from Jerez, 23 km
- Direct to Paris
- Seville airport, 75 km (year-round)
- Direct to Frankfurt
- Seville airport, 75 km (year-round); summer only from Jerez, 23 km
- Direct to the US
- Lisbon airport, 370 km (year-round); summer only from Málaga, 117 km
- Train station
- no long-distance station within 15 km
- Fastest train to Madrid
- no direct train
- Fastest train to Barcelona
- no direct train
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 Universitario de Jerez de La Frontera (28 km away, in Jerez de la Frontera, 484 beds)
- Nearest large public hospital (500+ beds, most specialties)
- Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar (50 km away, in Cádiz, 740 beds)
- Nearest private general hospital
- Hospital Virgen de Las Montañas (19 km away, in Villamartín, 108 beds)
- General hospitals within 25 km
- 1
- Waiting time for planned surgery (Andalusia)
- 173 days on average; 32.2% wait more than 6 months (Spain: 121 days)
- Waiting time for a first specialist visit
- 136 days on average; 57.1% 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
- El Altillo International School (curriculum not stated), Jerez de la Frontera, 28.2 km
- International schools within 25 km
- 0
- Nearest by curriculum (within 100 km)
- British 32 km · American 52 km · French 74 km · German 88 km · Nordic 68 km
Within 30 km (up to five):
| School | Curriculum | Levels in the register | Where | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Altillo International School | curriculum not stated | not listed | Jerez de la Frontera | 28 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
- +0.2% in ten years (31,193 in 2015, 31,267 in 2025)
- Age
- 16.2% aged 65 or over, 15.4% under 16 (2022; Spain: 20.0% and 14.9%)
- Local income
- 10,607 € net per person per year (2023), 71% of the Spanish average; median 14,350 € per adult-equivalent
- Foreign residents
- 2.4% of all residents; 2.5% of residents aged 65+ (2022)
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
- 3 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
- 28 out of 100: how much there is compared with the other 332 places (big cities score highest)
- 0 food shops (supermarkets, bakeries, greengrocers…)
- 1 pharmacies
- 2 doctors, clinics or hospitals
- 22 cafés, bars and restaurants
- 19 parks and gardens
- 25 bus stops
- 2 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
- 278 (1.80% of all homes; Spain 1.28%), 4.6 tourist beds per 100 residents (May 2026)
- Blue Flag beaches
- nearest in El Puerto de Santa María, 42 km; 0 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
- Guadalete Y Barbate
- Reservoirs now
- 75.9% full (week of 2026-09-29); the same week in the previous 10 years averaged 37.5%
- Worst week 2016-2025
- 14.4% full (2024-01-09)
- Weeks below 40% full, 2016-2025
- 45% 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
Not named in the rankings we track.
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 | 15.7 | 17.3 | 20.0 | 22.1 | 25.9 | 29.8 | 33.2 | 33.5 | 29.6 | 25.2 | 19.6 | 16.6 |
| Average nightly low, °C | 4.3 | 5.1 | 7.4 | 9.4 | 12.1 | 15.1 | 17.1 | 17.8 | 15.8 | 12.8 | 8.3 | 5.8 |
| Rain, mm | 67 | 50 | 54 | 48 | 34 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 30 | 84 | 82 | 86 |
| Rainy days (1 mm or more) | 6.3 | 5.9 | 6.4 | 5.7 | 3.7 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 2.5 | 6.3 | 6.8 | 7.2 |
| Sunshine, hours per day | 5.9 | 6.9 | 7.2 | 8.6 | 10.0 | 11.1 | 11.8 | 11.0 | 8.6 | 7.4 | 6.4 | 5.4 |
| Humidity, % | 77 | 73 | 68 | 64 | 57 | 54 | 51 | 53 | 61 | 69 | 75 | 79 |
| Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 7.5 | 16.9 | 25.0 | 26.0 | 16.5 | 5.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
The year in numbers
- Köppen climate class
- Csa: Hot-summer Mediterranean
- Summer mugginess (August average dew point)
- 16.5°C – muggy
- Typical hottest day of the year
- 41.0°C
- Typical coldest night of the year
- -2.5°C
- Days reaching 25 °C / 77 °F
- 160 a year (estimate)
- Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F
- 98 a year
- Days reaching 35 °C / 95 °F
- 22 a year (estimate)
- Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more)
- 6 a year (estimate)
- Frost nights (0 °C / 32 °F or less)
- 5 a year
- Overcast days
- 32 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 JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA AEROPUERTO (5960), 21.9 km away; temperatures adjusted to the town's altitude. © AEMET.
Around 2055 (projection)
- August average high
- 34.5°C: +1.2 °C compared with today (models range from 0.5 °C to 2.0 °C)
- Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more)
- 21 a year, +16 (models: +8 to +31)
- Frost nights
- 5 a year (+0)
- Rainy days (1 mm or more)
- 45 a year, -8 (models: -14 to -4)
- Rain amount
- -9% over the year: summer -41%, winter -4%
- Sunlight reaching the ground
- +0.8% (models: -1.1% to +2.5%); 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 Arcos de la Frontera?
Arcos de la Frontera is in the province of Cádiz (Andalusia), Spain, 40 km from the sea. The nearest airport is Jerez Airport (XRY), 23 km away.
How many people live in Arcos de la Frontera?
31,267 registered residents on 1 January 2025 (INE), +0.2% in ten years.
What is the climate of Arcos de la Frontera?
January afternoons average 15.7°C and nights 4.3°C; August afternoons 33.5°C. 8.4 hours of sunshine a day and 52 rainy days a year (AEMET 1991-2020).
Is Arcos de la Frontera safe?
Recorded conventional crime in Arcos de la Frontera was 19.1 offences per 1,000 residents in 2025, low for Spain (national rate about 41). Home burglaries: 0.77 per 1,000.
How hot is Arcos de la Frontera in summer?
August afternoons average 33.5°C (1991-2020), with 6 nights a year above 20 °C and 22 days of 35 °C or more.
How cold is Arcos de la Frontera in winter?
January afternoons average 15.7°C and January nights 4.3°C, with 5 frost nights a year.
Is there a hospital in Arcos de la Frontera?
The nearest public general hospital is Hospital Universitario de Jerez de La Frontera in Jerez de la Frontera, 28 km away. Planned surgery in Andalusia waits 173 days on average.
Can you fly direct from Arcos de la Frontera to Amsterdam or London all year?
Yes. Jerez Airport (XRY) (23 km away) has year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US.
What does it cost to rent or buy in Arcos de la Frontera?
A typical apartment (83 m²) rented for 321 € a month in 2024 contracts. Homes were appraised at 1,225 €/m² on average over the last four quarters, 40.0% in five years.
Nearby and similar towns
- Nearest towns in this comparison
- Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz, 28 km), Lebrija (Seville, 31 km), El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz, 42 km), Puerto Real (Cádiz, 42 km), Los Palacios y Villafranca (Seville, 47 km)
- Most similar towns (summer heat, winter nights, rainy days, home prices, size)
- Carmona (Seville), Morón de la Frontera (Seville), Xàtiva (Valencia), Tortosa (Tarragona), Lucena (Córdoba)
Distances are straight-line between town centres. Similarity is the distance in standardised values of the five measures.