Arrecife, Lanzarote: population, climate, prices
Las Palmas, Canary Islands · 70,811 inhabitants (1 Jan 2025)
Living in Arrecife
Arrecife is a town of 70,811 inhabitants on the coast in Las Palmas (Canary Islands), with mild winters and hot, dry summers (January nights 14.2°C, August afternoons 29.5°C). Winter nights are mild for Spain: 14.2°C on average in January, warmer than 98% of the towns compared. The nearest international school (British School Of Lanzarote, British curriculum) is 3.6 km away. It is one of the sunniest places in Spain: 8.2 hours of sunshine a day on average. Against that, 100 nights a year stay above 20 °C, which makes sleeping without air conditioning hard in summer; 2.4% of all homes are holiday lets (Spain 1.3%), so summers are busy and rents are under pressure. Around 2055, Spain's official climate scenarios put August afternoons here at about 30.1°C and the number of warm nights at 125 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 Arrecife
Arrecife is the capital city and a municipality of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spain. It was made the island's capital in 1852. The city owes its name to the rock reef which covers its local beach. It also gives its name to the nearby Arrecife Airport. By 2025, the population of the municipality was 70,265, and the population of the city was 52,079. Its area is 22.72 square kilometres (8.77 sq mi).
From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Read more on Wikipedia →
Getting there
- Nearest airport
- César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport (ACE), 6 km, 8,920,901 passengers in 2025, 82 destinations
- Direct to Amsterdam
- Lanzarote airport, 6 km (year-round)
- Direct to Brussels (Zaventem or Charleroi)
- Lanzarote airport, 6 km (year-round)
- Direct to London
- Lanzarote airport, 6 km (year-round)
- Direct to Paris
- Lanzarote airport, 6 km (year-round)
- Direct to Frankfurt
- Lanzarote airport, 6 km (year-round)
- Direct to the US
- Lisbon airport, 1,165 km (year-round); summer only from Faro, 1,035 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 Dr. José Molina Orosa (in town, 252 beds)
- Nearest large public hospital (500+ beds, most specialties)
- Complejo Hospitalario Universitario Insular Materno Infantil (206 km away, in Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las, 916 beds)
- Nearest private general hospital
- Hospiten Lanzarote (10 km away, in Tías, 61 beds)
- General hospitals within 25 km
- 2
- Waiting time for planned surgery (Canary Islands)
- 106 days on average; 17.4% wait more than 6 months (Spain: 121 days)
- Waiting time for a first specialist visit
- 162 days on average; 89.9% 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 LANZAROTE (British), Tahíche, 3.6 km
- International schools within 25 km
- 2
- Nearest by curriculum (within 100 km)
- British 3.6 km
Within 30 km (up to five):
| School | Curriculum | Levels in the register | Where | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BRITISH SCHOOL OF LANZAROTE | British | not listed | Tahíche | 3.6 km |
| HISPANO BRITÁNICO | British | infant, primary, secondary | Tías | 10 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
- +24.4% in ten years (56,940 in 2015, 70,811 in 2025)
- Age
- 12.1% aged 65 or over, 15.7% under 16 (2022; Spain: 20.0% and 14.9%)
- Local income
- 12,079 € net per person per year (2023), 80% of the Spanish average; median 16,450 € per adult-equivalent
- Foreign residents
- 18.9% of all residents; 8.5% of residents aged 65+ (2022)
- Largest nationalities
- Colombian 4.9%, Moroccan 3.0%, Italian 1.4%, Chinese 0.9%, Romanian 0.8%; all EU citizens 3.8% (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
- 52 out of 100: how much there is compared with the other 332 places (big cities score highest)
- 22 food shops (supermarkets, bakeries, greengrocers…)
- 6 pharmacies
- 3 doctors, clinics or hospitals
- 56 cafés, bars and restaurants
- 25 parks and gardens
- 34 bus stops
- 6 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
- 599 (2.36% of all homes; Spain 1.28%), 3.4 tourist beds per 100 residents (May 2026)
- Blue Flag beaches
- 1 in town; 6 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
No reservoir data: the Balearic and Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla get most of their water from groundwater and desalination plants, which this bulletin does not cover.
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 | 20.9 | 21.5 | 22.9 | 23.8 | 25.2 | 26.7 | 28.5 | 29.5 | 28.6 | 27.0 | 24.3 | 22.0 |
| Average nightly low, °C | 14.2 | 14.4 | 15.2 | 16.1 | 17.5 | 19.2 | 20.7 | 21.5 | 21.0 | 19.6 | 17.4 | 15.5 |
| Rain, mm | 15 | 16 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 16 | 21 |
| Rainy days (1 mm or more) | 2.8 | 2.5 | 2.2 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 3.0 | 3.2 |
| Sunshine, hours per day | 6.6 | 7.1 | 8.0 | 8.6 | 9.5 | 9.7 | 10.1 | 9.8 | 8.7 | 7.5 | 6.8 | 6.5 |
| Humidity, % | 66 | 66 | 65 | 64 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 69 | 69 | 67 | 69 |
| Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 4.8 | 9.1 | 5.5 | 2.8 | 0.4 | 0.0 |
The year in numbers
- Köppen climate class
- BWh: Hot desert
- Summer mugginess (August average dew point)
- 18.5°C – oppressive
- Typical hottest day of the year
- 37.4°C
- Typical coldest night of the year
- 10.6°C
- Days reaching 25 °C / 77 °F
- 184 a year (estimate)
- Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F
- 27 a year
- Days reaching 35 °C / 95 °F
- 0 a year (estimate)
- Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more)
- 100 a year (estimate)
- Frost nights (0 °C / 32 °F or less)
- 0 a year
- Overcast days
- 25 a year
- Average humidity
- 66%
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 LANZAROTE AEROPUERTO (C029O), 5.2 km away; temperatures adjusted to the town's altitude. © AEMET.
Around 2055 (projection)
- August average high
- 30.1°C: +0.6 °C compared with today (models range from 0.2 °C to 1.5 °C)
- Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more)
- 125 a year, +25 (models: +10 to +62)
- Frost nights
- 0 a year (+0)
- Rainy days (1 mm or more)
- 13 a year, -4 (models: -9 to -1)
- Rain amount
- -29% over the year: summer -17%, winter -26%
- Sunlight reaching the ground
- not projected for the Canary Islands
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 Arrecife?
Arrecife is in the province of Las Palmas (Canary Islands), Spain, on the coast. The nearest airport is César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport (ACE), 6 km away.
How many people live in Arrecife?
70,811 registered residents on 1 January 2025 (INE), +24.4% in ten years.
What is the climate of Arrecife?
January afternoons average 20.9°C and nights 14.2°C; August afternoons 29.5°C. 8.2 hours of sunshine a day and 18 rainy days a year (AEMET 1991-2020).
Is Arrecife safe?
Recorded conventional crime in Arrecife was 36.3 offences per 1,000 residents in 2025, about average for Spain (national rate about 41). Home burglaries: 0.17 per 1,000.
How hot is Arrecife in summer?
August afternoons average 29.5°C (1991-2020), with 100 nights a year above 20 °C and 0 days of 35 °C or more.
How cold is Arrecife in winter?
January afternoons average 20.9°C and January nights 14.2°C, with 0 frost nights a year.
Is there a hospital in Arrecife?
Yes: Hospital Universitario Dr. José Molina Orosa, a public general hospital with 252 beds. Planned surgery in Canary Islands waits 106 days on average.
Can you fly direct from Arrecife to Amsterdam or London all year?
Yes. César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport (ACE) (6 km away) has year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US.
What does it cost to rent or buy in Arrecife?
A typical apartment (75 m²) rented for 500 € a month in 2024 contracts. Homes were appraised at 1,892 €/m² on average over the last four quarters, 51.4% in five years.
Nearby and similar towns
- Nearest towns in this comparison
- La Oliva (Las Palmas, 54 km), Puerto del Rosario (Las Palmas, 60 km), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Las Palmas, 206 km), Telde (Las Palmas, 212 km), Arucas (Las Palmas, 214 km)
- Most similar towns (summer heat, winter nights, rainy days, home prices, size)
- Ceuta (Ceuta), Agüimes (Las Palmas), Ingenio (Las Palmas), Melilla (Melilla), Santa Lucía de Tirajana (Las Palmas)
Distances are straight-line between town centres. Similarity is the distance in standardised values of the five measures.