Igualada, Barcelona: population, climate, prices

Barcelona, Catalonia · 42,085 inhabitants (1 Jan 2025)

Living in Igualada

Igualada is a small town of 42,085 inhabitants 42 km from the sea in Barcelona (Catalonia), with cold winters and hot summers (January nights 0.8°C, August afternoons 31.2°C). Year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US leave from Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN), 50 km away. There is a public general hospital in town (Hospital D'Igualada, 285 beds). Against that, winter nights are cold (0.8°C in January, 43 frost nights a year); public waiting lists in Catalonia are long (142 days on average for planned surgery). Around 2055, Spain's official climate scenarios put August afternoons here at about 32.3°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 Igualada

Igualada is a municipality and capital of Anoia county in Penedès, Catalonia, Spain. It is located on the left bank of the Anoia River and at the western end of the Igualada branch of the Llobregat–Anoia railway. Igualada is the capital and central market of the Anoia comarca, a rich agricultural and wine-producing district. Its population was 38,918 in 2009.

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

Buying: appraised price

1,757 €/m²

Last 4 quarters to 2026 Q2, 549 valuations. 1 year 12.6%, 5 years 41.0%.

Renting: typical apartment

535 €/month

6.62 €/m² per month for a typical 83 m² (2024 contracts). 5 years 21.6%. Houses: 548 €/month.

Safety: recorded crime

32.8 per 1,000

Conventional crime 2025 (Spain ≈ 41). Home burglaries 1.16, violent robbery 1.00, theft 9.4 per 1,000. 1 year -0.7%.

Sea

41.5 km

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

Getting there

Nearest airport: Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN), 50 km, 57,483,036 passengers in 2025, 236 destinations
Direct to Amsterdam: Barcelona airport, 50 km (year-round)
Direct to Brussels (Zaventem or Charleroi): Barcelona airport, 50 km (year-round)
Direct to London: Barcelona airport, 50 km (year-round)
Direct to Paris: Barcelona airport, 50 km (year-round)
Direct to Frankfurt: Barcelona airport, 50 km (year-round)
Direct to the US: Barcelona airport, 50 km (year-round)
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 D'Igualada (in town, 285 beds)
Nearest large public hospital (500+ beds, most specialties): Hospital de Sabadell (41 km away, in Sabadell, 861 beds)
Nearest private general hospital: Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Deu - App - 2 (23 km away, in Sant Esteve Sesrovires, 152 beds)
General hospitals within 25 km: 5
Waiting time for planned surgery (Catalonia): 142 days on average; 32.0% wait more than 6 months (Spain: 121 days)
Waiting time for a first specialist visit: 120 days on average; 72.3% 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: Terrassa Education Centre (curriculum not stated), Vacarisses, 24.8 km
International schools within 25 km: 1
Nearest by curriculum (within 100 km): British 40 km · American 34 km · French 38 km · German 45 km

Within 30 km (up to five):

School	Curriculum	Levels in the register	Where	Distance
Terrassa Education Centre	curriculum not stated	infant, secondary	Vacarisses	25 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: +8.6% in ten years (38,751 in 2015, 42,085 in 2025)
Age: 20.3% aged 65 or over, 16.6% under 16 (2022; Spain: 20.0% and 14.9%)
Local income: 15,698 € net per person per year (2023), 104% of the Spanish average; median 20,650 € per adult-equivalent
Foreign residents: 12.6% of all residents; 2.4% of residents aged 65+ (2022)
Largest nationalities: Moroccan 5.2%, Romanian 0.9%, Chinese 0.7%, Colombian 0.7%; all EU citizens 1.7% (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: 5 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: 45 out of 100: how much there is compared with the other 332 places (big cities score highest)

13 food shops (supermarkets, bakeries, greengrocers…)
8 pharmacies
1 doctors, clinics or hospitals
27 cafés, bars and restaurants
21 parks and gardens
36 bus stops
7 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: 19 (0.10% of all homes; Spain 1.28%), 0.2 tourist beds per 100 residents (May 2026)
Blue Flag beaches: nearest in Vilanova i la Geltrú, 41 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: Cuencas Internas De Cataluña
Reservoirs now: 73.6% full (week of 2026-09-29); the same week in the previous 10 years averaged 57.5%
Worst week 2016-2025: 14.5% full (2024-03-05)
Weeks below 40% full, 2016-2025: 26% 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	11.2	13.8	17.5	20.0	24.0	28.4	31.5	31.2	26.7	21.8	15.3	11.1
Average nightly low, °C	0.8	1.3	4.0	6.7	10.4	14.5	17.2	17.4	14.1	10.3	4.6	1.4
Rain, mm	33	24	38	54	55	49	30	53	57	68	58	33
Rainy days (1 mm or more)	3.9	3.2	4.4	6.3	6.0	4.5	2.8	4.3	4.6	5.0	4.7	3.8
Sunshine, hours per day	4.5	5.9	6.8	7.8	8.5	10.0	10.8	9.5	7.6	6.0	4.7	4.0
Humidity, %	76	68	64	62	60	57	55	59	66	73	76	79
Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	2.2	11.7	23.2	22.0	5.8	0.6	0.0	0.0

The year in numbers

Köppen climate class: Cfa: Humid subtropical
Summer mugginess (August average dew point): 15.7°C – noticeable
Typical hottest day of the year: 37.3°C
Typical coldest night of the year: -6.3°C
Days reaching 25 °C / 77 °F: 128 a year (estimate)
Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F: 66 a year
Days reaching 35 °C / 95 °F: 5 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): 43 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 MANRESA (LA CULLA) (0149D), 24.1 km away; temperatures adjusted to the town's altitude. © AEMET.

Around 2055 (projection)

August average high: 32.3°C: +1.3 °C compared with today (models range from 0.7 °C to 2.7 °C)
Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more): 21 a year, +16 (models: +4 to +28)
Frost nights: 39 a year (-5)
Rainy days (1 mm or more): 48 a year, -5 (models: -11 to +0)
Rain amount: -7% over the year: summer -23%, winter -1%
Sunlight reaching the ground: +0.3% (models: -0.4% to +1.2%); 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 Igualada?

Igualada is in the province of Barcelona (Catalonia), Spain, 42 km from the sea. The nearest airport is Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN), 50 km away.

How many people live in Igualada?

42,085 registered residents on 1 January 2025 (INE), +8.6% in ten years.

What is the climate of Igualada?

January afternoons average 11.2°C and nights 0.8°C; August afternoons 31.2°C. 7.2 hours of sunshine a day and 54 rainy days a year (AEMET 1991-2020).

Is Igualada safe?

Recorded conventional crime in Igualada was 32.8 offences per 1,000 residents in 2025, about average for Spain (national rate about 41). Home burglaries: 1.16 per 1,000.

How hot is Igualada in summer?

August afternoons average 31.2°C (1991-2020), with 6 nights a year above 20 °C and 5 days of 35 °C or more.

How cold is Igualada in winter?

January afternoons average 11.2°C and January nights 0.8°C, with 43 frost nights a year.

Is there a hospital in Igualada?

Yes: Hospital D'Igualada, a public general hospital with 285 beds. Planned surgery in Catalonia waits 142 days on average.

Can you fly direct from Igualada to Amsterdam or London all year?

Yes. Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN) (50 km away) has year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US.

What does it cost to rent or buy in Igualada?

A typical apartment (83 m²) rented for 535 € a month in 2024 contracts. Homes were appraised at 1,757 €/m² on average over the last four quarters, 41.0% in five years.

Nearby and similar towns

Nearest towns in this comparison: Manresa (Barcelona, 24 km), Vilafranca del Penedès (Barcelona, 27 km), Martorell (Barcelona, 28 km), Terrassa (Barcelona, 32 km), Sant Andreu de la Barca (Barcelona, 33 km)
Most similar towns (summer heat, winter nights, rainy days, home prices, size): Huesca (Huesca), Tudela (Navarre), Castellar del Vallès (Barcelona), Cuenca (Cuenca), Illescas (Toledo)

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