Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria
Las Palmas, Canary Islands · 381,868 inhabitants (1 Jan 2025)
Living in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is a city of 381,868 inhabitants on the coast in Las Palmas (Canary Islands), with mild winters and warm, dry summers (January nights 14.9°C, August afternoons 26.7°C). Winter nights are mild for Spain: 14.9°C on average in January, warmer than 99% of the towns compared. The nearest international school (The American School Of Las Palmas, American curriculum) is 1.8 km away. Summers stay moderate: August afternoons average 26.7°C, cooler than 86% of the towns. Against that, 100 nights a year stay above 20 °C, which makes sleeping without air conditioning hard in summer; sunshine is scarce by Spanish standards (5.4 hours a day, 40 rainy days a year); 1.6% 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 28.5°C and the number of warm nights at 150 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 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Las Palmas, officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Canary Islands in Spain. With a population of 383,516 as of 2024, it is the ninth-largest city in Spain. It is also the fifth-most populous urban area in Spain and, depending on sources, ninth or tenth most populous metropolitan area in Spain.
From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Read more on Wikipedia →
Getting there
- Nearest airport
- Gran Canaria Airport (LPA), 22 km, 15,826,553 passengers in 2025, 130 destinations
- Direct to Amsterdam
- Gran Canaria airport, 22 km (year-round)
- Direct to Brussels (Zaventem or Charleroi)
- Gran Canaria airport, 22 km (year-round)
- Direct to London
- Gran Canaria airport, 22 km (year-round)
- Direct to Paris
- Gran Canaria airport, 22 km (year-round)
- Direct to Frankfurt
- Gran Canaria airport, 22 km (year-round)
- Direct to the US
- Lisbon airport, 1,320 km (year-round); summer only from Faro, 1,210 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
- Complejo Hospitalario Universitario Insular Materno Infantil (in town, 916 beds)
- Nearest large public hospital (500+ beds, most specialties)
- Complejo Hospitalario Universitario Insular Materno Infantil (in town, 916 beds)
- Nearest private general hospital
- Hospital Perpetuo Socorro (in town, 195 beds)
- General hospitals within 25 km
- 8
- 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
- THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF LAS PALMAS (American), Tafira, 1.8 km
- International schools within 25 km
- 8
- Nearest by curriculum (within 100 km)
- British 1.8 km · American 1.8 km · French 15 km · German 6.6 km · Nordic 42 km
Within 30 km (up to five):
| School | Curriculum | Levels in the register | Where | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF LAS PALMAS | American | infant, primary, secondary | Tafira | 1.8 km |
| THE BRITISH SCHOOL OF GRAN CANARIA | British | infant, primary, secondary | Tafira | 1.8 km |
| CANTERBURY SCHOOL | British | infant, primary, secondary | San Lorenzo | 6.4 km |
| ALEMÁN | German | infant, primary, secondary | Almatriche | 6.6 km |
| OAKLEY COLLEGE | curriculum not stated | infant, primary, secondary | Las Palmas de Gran Canaria | 9.6 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
- +0.6% in ten years (379,766 in 2015, 381,868 in 2025)
- Age
- 19.5% aged 65 or over, 11.9% under 16 (2022; Spain: 20.0% and 14.9%)
- Local income
- 14,968 € net per person per year (2023), 100% of the Spanish average; median 18,550 € per adult-equivalent
- Foreign residents
- 7.6% of all residents; 3.1% of residents aged 65+ (2022)
- Largest nationalities
- Italian 1.0%, Colombian 0.7%, Moroccan 0.6%, Chinese 0.5%, Venezuelan 0.5%; all EU citizens 2.1% (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
- 76 out of 100: how much there is compared with the other 332 places (big cities score highest)
- 108 food shops (supermarkets, bakeries, greengrocers…)
- 17 pharmacies
- 31 doctors, clinics or hospitals
- 360 cafés, bars and restaurants
- 203 parks and gardens
- 59 bus stops
- 3 libraries, theatres, cinemas, cultural centres
- 0 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
- 2,786 (1.59% of all homes; Spain 1.28%), 2.5 tourist beds per 100 residents (May 2026)
- Blue Flag beaches
- nearest in Arucas, 9 km; 15 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
- Oxford Economics Global Cities Index 2026 (overall, of 1,000 cities): 248 (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 | 20.2 | 20.5 | 21.4 | 21.9 | 23.0 | 24.4 | 25.5 | 26.7 | 26.6 | 25.8 | 23.2 | 21.6 |
| Average nightly low, °C | 14.9 | 15.0 | 15.4 | 16.1 | 17.3 | 19.0 | 20.3 | 21.3 | 21.0 | 20.0 | 18.0 | 16.2 |
| Rain, mm | 44 | 31 | 21 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 33 | 43 | 34 |
| Rainy days (1 mm or more) | 5.8 | 4.8 | 3.9 | 3.2 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 1.7 | 4.7 | 6.5 | 5.5 |
| Sunshine, hours per day | 4.3 | 4.6 | 5.2 | 6.0 | 6.5 | 6.6 | 6.1 | 6.8 | 5.9 | 4.9 | 4.0 | 4.2 |
| Humidity, % | 78 | 76 | 78 | 78 | 79 | 81 | 82 | 81 | 81 | 79 | 79 | 78 |
| Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
The year in numbers
- Köppen climate class
- BSh: Hot semi-arid
- Summer mugginess (August average dew point)
- 19.0°C – oppressive
- Typical hottest day of the year
- 35.0°C
- Typical coldest night of the year
- 11.6°C
- Days reaching 25 °C / 77 °F
- 119 a year (estimate)
- Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F
- 6 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
- 93 a year
- Average humidity
- 79%
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 LAS PALMAS DE G.C. (TAFIRA CMT) (C658L), 6.7 km away; temperatures adjusted to the town's altitude. © AEMET.
Around 2055 (projection)
- August average high
- 28.5°C: +0.6 °C compared with today (models range from 0.0 °C to 1.5 °C)
- Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more)
- 150 a year, +27 (models: +7 to +67)
- Frost nights
- 0 a year (+0)
- Rainy days (1 mm or more)
- 18 a year, -3 (models: -7 to -1)
- Rain amount
- -30% over the year: summer -21%, winter -28%
- 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 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria?
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is in the province of Las Palmas (Canary Islands), Spain, on the coast. The nearest airport is Gran Canaria Airport (LPA), 22 km away.
How many people live in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria?
381,868 registered residents on 1 January 2025 (INE), +0.6% in ten years.
What is the climate of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria?
January afternoons average 20.2°C and nights 14.9°C; August afternoons 26.7°C. 5.4 hours of sunshine a day and 40 rainy days a year (AEMET 1991-2020).
Is Las Palmas de Gran Canaria safe?
Recorded conventional crime in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria was 41.7 offences per 1,000 residents in 2025, about average for Spain (national rate about 41). Home burglaries: 0.63 per 1,000.
How hot is Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in summer?
August afternoons average 26.7°C (1991-2020), with 100 nights a year above 20 °C and 0 days of 35 °C or more.
How cold is Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in winter?
January afternoons average 20.2°C and January nights 14.9°C, with 0 frost nights a year.
Is there a hospital in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria?
Yes: Complejo Hospitalario Universitario Insular Materno Infantil, a public general hospital with 916 beds. Planned surgery in Canary Islands waits 106 days on average.
Can you fly direct from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to Amsterdam or London all year?
Yes. Gran Canaria Airport (LPA) (22 km away) has year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US.
What does it cost to rent or buy in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria?
A typical apartment (77 m²) rented for 600 € a month in 2024 contracts. Homes were appraised at 2,221 €/m² on average over the last four quarters, 40.8% in five years.
Nearby and similar towns
- Nearest towns in this comparison
- Arucas (Las Palmas, 9 km), Telde (Las Palmas, 14 km), Gáldar (Las Palmas, 22 km), Ingenio (Las Palmas, 23 km), Santa Lucía de Tirajana (Las Palmas, 26 km)
- Most similar towns (summer heat, winter nights, rainy days, home prices, size)
- Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), San Cristóbal de La Laguna (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), Badalona (Barcelona), Algeciras (Cádiz)
Distances are straight-line between town centres. Similarity is the distance in standardised values of the five measures.
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