Maó, Menorca: population, climate, prices
Balearic Islands, Balearic Islands · 30,666 inhabitants (1 Jan 2025)
Living in Maó
Maó is a small town of 30,666 inhabitants on the coast in Balearic Islands, with mild winters and hot summers (January nights 8.1°C, August afternoons 30.1°C). Recorded crime is low: 26.4 offences per 1,000 residents in 2025 (Spain about 41). Winter nights are mild for Spain: 8.1°C on average in January, warmer than 83% of the towns compared. Year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US leave from Menorca Airport (MAH), 5 km away. Against that, August is humid (dew point 19.2°C), so the heat feels sticky; 70 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 31.0°C and the number of warm nights at 79 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 Maó
Mahon, historically known as Port Mahon in English, officially and in Catalan Maó (Balearic Catalan: [məˈo], locally [ˈmo]; formerly spelled Mahó), is the capital and second largest city of the island of Menorca, Spain. The city is on the eastern coast of the island, which is part of the archipelago and autonomous community of the Balearic Islands.
Mahon has one of the longest natural harbours in the world: 5 kilometres (3 miles) long and up to 900 metres (3,000 feet) wide. The water is deep but remains mostly clear due to the port's enclosed nature.
Mayonnaise is considered to have originated in Mahón, and gotten its name from it.
Its population in 2021 was estimated to be 29,125.
From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Read more on Wikipedia →
Getting there
- Nearest airport
- Menorca Airport (MAH), 5 km, 4,210,152 passengers in 2025, 72 destinations
- Direct to Amsterdam
- Palma airport, 136 km (year-round); summer only from Menorca, 5 km
- Direct to Brussels (Zaventem or Charleroi)
- Palma airport, 136 km (year-round); summer only from Menorca, 5 km
- Direct to London
- Menorca airport, 5 km (year-round)
- Direct to Paris
- Palma airport, 136 km (year-round); summer only from Menorca, 5 km
- Direct to Frankfurt
- Palma airport, 136 km (year-round); summer only from Menorca, 5 km
- Direct to the US
- Barcelona airport, 242 km (year-round); summer only from Palma, 136 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 Mateu Orfila (in town, 142 beds)
- Nearest large public hospital (500+ beds, most specialties)
- Hospital Universitari Son Espases (143 km away, in Palma, 839 beds)
- Nearest private general hospital
- Clínica Juaneda Mahón (in town, 18 beds)
- General hospitals within 25 km
- 2
- Waiting time for planned surgery (Balearic Islands)
- 105 days on average; 22.4% wait more than 6 months (Spain: 121 days)
- Waiting time for a first specialist visit
- 71 days on average; 44.4% 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
- RAFA NADAL INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL (curriculum not stated), Manacor, 97.1 km
- International schools within 25 km
- 0
- Nearest by curriculum (within 100 km)
- none of these within 100 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
- +9.5% in ten years (28,006 in 2015, 30,666 in 2025)
- Age
- 18.0% aged 65 or over, 14.9% under 16 (2022; Spain: 20.0% and 14.9%)
- Local income
- 16,314 € net per person per year (2023), 108% of the Spanish average; median 21,350 € per adult-equivalent
- Foreign residents
- 12.6% of all residents; 7.2% of residents aged 65+ (2022)
- Largest nationalities
- Moroccan 2.3%, British 1.3%, Colombian 1.2%, Italian 1.1%, Romanian 0.5%; all EU citizens 3.1% (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
- 54 out of 100: how much there is compared with the other 332 places (big cities score highest)
- 15 food shops (supermarkets, bakeries, greengrocers…)
- 7 pharmacies
- 4 doctors, clinics or hospitals
- 56 cafés, bars and restaurants
- 31 parks and gardens
- 11 bus stops
- 8 libraries, theatres, cinemas, cultural centres
- 2 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
- 172 (1.13% of all homes; Spain 1.28%), 3.7 tourist beds per 100 residents (May 2026)
- Blue Flag beaches
- nearest in Sant Lluis, 4 km; 4 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 | 14.8 | 14.7 | 16.7 | 19.0 | 22.6 | 26.9 | 29.7 | 30.1 | 26.9 | 23.3 | 18.7 | 15.9 |
| Average nightly low, °C | 8.1 | 7.7 | 9.2 | 11.2 | 14.4 | 18.2 | 21.2 | 22.0 | 19.3 | 16.4 | 12.1 | 9.3 |
| Rain, mm | 59 | 50 | 38 | 43 | 31 | 15 | 5 | 18 | 67 | 71 | 101 | 57 |
| Rainy days (1 mm or more) | 7.4 | 7.0 | 5.1 | 5.8 | 3.8 | 2.0 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 5.3 | 6.9 | 8.7 | 7.7 |
| Sunshine, hours per day | 4.6 | 5.2 | 6.7 | 7.7 | 9.0 | 10.7 | 11.1 | 10.0 | 7.5 | 5.9 | 4.7 | 4.3 |
| Humidity, % | 77 | 76 | 74 | 72 | 67 | 62 | 61 | 64 | 69 | 75 | 76 | 78 |
| Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 4.0 | 13.0 | 14.0 | 1.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
The year in numbers
- Köppen climate class
- Csa: Hot-summer Mediterranean
- Summer mugginess (August average dew point)
- 19.2°C – oppressive
- Typical hottest day of the year
- 34.7°C
- Typical coldest night of the year
- 2.4°C
- Days reaching 25 °C / 77 °F
- 120 a year (estimate)
- Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F
- 33 a year
- Days reaching 35 °C / 95 °F
- 0 a year (estimate)
- Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more)
- 70 a year (estimate)
- Frost nights (0 °C / 32 °F or less)
- 0 a year
- Overcast days
- 61 a year
- Average humidity
- 71%
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 MENORCA, AEROPUERTO (B893), 5.8 km away; temperatures adjusted to the town's altitude. © AEMET.
Around 2055 (projection)
- August average high
- 31.0°C: +1.2 °C compared with today (models range from 0.5 °C to 2.3 °C)
- Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more)
- 79 a year, +15 (models: +8 to +25)
- Frost nights
- 0 a year (+0)
- Rainy days (1 mm or more)
- 57 a year, -5 (models: -9 to +2)
- Rain amount
- -6% over the year: summer -26%, winter -2%
- Sunlight reaching the ground
- -0.1% (models: -0.8% to +1.3%); 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 Maó?
Maó is in the province of Balearic Islands, Spain, on the coast. The nearest airport is Menorca Airport (MAH), 5 km away.
How many people live in Maó?
30,666 registered residents on 1 January 2025 (INE), +9.5% in ten years.
What is the climate of Maó?
January afternoons average 14.8°C and nights 8.1°C; August afternoons 30.1°C. 7.3 hours of sunshine a day and 62 rainy days a year (AEMET 1991-2020).
Is Maó safe?
Recorded conventional crime in Maó was 26.4 offences per 1,000 residents in 2025, low for Spain (national rate about 41). Home burglaries: 0.39 per 1,000.
How hot is Maó in summer?
August afternoons average 30.1°C (1991-2020), with 70 nights a year above 20 °C and 0 days of 35 °C or more.
How cold is Maó in winter?
January afternoons average 14.8°C and January nights 8.1°C, with 0 frost nights a year.
Is there a hospital in Maó?
Yes: Hospital Mateu Orfila, a public general hospital with 142 beds. Planned surgery in Balearic Islands waits 105 days on average.
Can you fly direct from Maó to Amsterdam or London all year?
Yes. Menorca Airport (MAH) (5 km away) has year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US.
What does it cost to rent or buy in Maó?
A typical apartment (87 m²) rented for 583 € a month in 2024 contracts. Homes were appraised at 2,790 €/m² on average over the last four quarters, 65.5% in five years.
Nearby and similar towns
- Nearest towns in this comparison
- Ciutadella de Menorca (Balearic Islands, 39 km), Manacor (Balearic Islands, 97 km), Inca (Balearic Islands, 117 km), Llucmajor (Balearic Islands, 126 km), Marratxí (Balearic Islands, 132 km)
- Most similar towns (summer heat, winter nights, rainy days, home prices, size)
- Sant Andreu de la Barca (Barcelona), Molins de Rei (Barcelona), Rota (Cádiz), Pineda de Mar (Barcelona), Martorell (Barcelona)
Distances are straight-line between town centres. Similarity is the distance in standardised values of the five measures.