Orihuela, Alicante: population, climate, prices
Alicante, Valencian Community · 84,560 inhabitants (1 Jan 2025)
Living in Orihuela
Orihuela is a town of 84,560 inhabitants 25 km from the sea in Alicante (Valencian Community), with cool winters and hot, dry summers (January nights 6.8°C, August afternoons 30.8°C). 34.5% of residents are foreign nationals (44.1% among the over-65s), so English-speaking services are common. It is one of the sunniest places in Spain: 8.4 hours of sunshine a day on average. Year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US leave from Region of Murcia International Airport (RMU), 35 km away. Against that, 2.4% of all homes are holiday lets (Spain 1.3%), so summers are busy and rents are under pressure; recorded crime is high (50.8 per 1,000 residents; Spain about 41); 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 32.0°C and the number of warm nights at 88 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 Orihuela
Orihuela is a city and municipality located at the foot of the Sierra de Orihuela mountains in the province of Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain. The city is in one of the Spanish-speaking areas of the Valencian Community.
From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Read more on Wikipedia →
Getting there
- Nearest airport
- Region of Murcia International Airport (RMU), 35 km, 949,007 passengers in 2025, 21 destinations
- Direct to Amsterdam
- Alicante airport, 40 km (year-round)
- Direct to Brussels (Zaventem or Charleroi)
- Alicante airport, 40 km (year-round)
- Direct to London
- Murcia airport, 35 km (year-round)
- Direct to Paris
- Alicante airport, 40 km (year-round)
- Direct to Frankfurt
- Alicante airport, 40 km (year-round)
- Direct to the US
- Madrid airport, 350 km (year-round)
- Train station
- Orihuela-Miguel Hernández (0.9 km)
- Fastest train to Madrid
- 2 h 29
- 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 Vega Baja de Orihuela (in town, 336 beds)
- Nearest large public hospital (500+ beds, most specialties)
- Hospital Clínico Universitario Virgen de La Arrixaca (20 km away, in Murcia, 937 beds)
- Nearest private general hospital
- Hospital La Vega Grupo Ha (20 km away, in Murcia, 142 beds)
- General hospitals within 25 km
- 6
- Waiting time for planned surgery (Valencian Community)
- 88 days on average; 16.1% wait more than 6 months (Spain: 121 days)
- Waiting time for a first specialist visit
- 95 days on average; 53.7% 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
- LA ENREDADERA VIVENCIAL SCHOOL (curriculum not stated), Puente Tocinos, 17.1 km
- International schools within 25 km
- 11
- Nearest by curriculum (within 100 km)
- British 27 km · American 20 km · French 20 km · Nordic 20 km
Within 30 km (up to five):
| School | Curriculum | Levels in the register | Where | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LA ENREDADERA VIVENCIAL SCHOOL | curriculum not stated | infant, primary | Puente Tocinos | 17 km |
| PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL | curriculum not stated | infant, primary, secondary | San Miguel de Salinas | 19 km |
| DEN NORSKE SKOLEN I ROJALES-CIUDAD QUESADA | Norwegian | primary, secondary | Rojales | 20 km |
| BREWSTER MURCIA | American | infant, primary, secondary | Palmar (el) o Lugar de Don Juan | 20 km |
| EL LIMONAR INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL | curriculum not stated | infant, primary, secondary | Palmar (el) o Lugar de Don Juan | 20 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
- +2.3% in ten years (82,675 in 2015, 84,560 in 2025)
- Age
- 23.3% aged 65 or over, 14.3% under 16 (2022; Spain: 20.0% and 14.9%)
- Local income
- 11,512 € net per person per year (2023), 77% of the Spanish average; median 15,050 € per adult-equivalent
- Foreign residents
- 34.5% of all residents; 44.1% of residents aged 65+ (2022)
- Largest nationalities
- British 12.9%, Moroccan 3.1%, Russian 1.7%, Romanian 1.1%, Ukrainian 1.0%; all EU citizens 9.0% (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
- 50 out of 100: how much there is compared with the other 332 places (big cities score highest)
- 44 food shops (supermarkets, bakeries, greengrocers…)
- 13 pharmacies
- 7 doctors, clinics or hospitals
- 70 cafés, bars and restaurants
- 20 parks and gardens
- 1 bus stops
- 5 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
- 2,090 (2.36% of all homes; Spain 1.28%), 12.6 tourist beds per 100 residents (May 2026)
- Blue Flag beaches
- 10 in town; 32 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
- Segura
- Reservoirs now
- 50.1% full (week of 2026-09-29); the same week in the previous 10 years averaged 25.7%
- Worst week 2016-2025
- 13.1% full (2017-11-21)
- Weeks below 40% full, 2016-2025
- 83% 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 | 16.7 | 17.3 | 19.5 | 21.2 | 24.5 | 27.8 | 30.5 | 30.8 | 28.1 | 24.8 | 20.0 | 16.9 |
| Average nightly low, °C | 6.8 | 7.6 | 9.5 | 11.6 | 14.7 | 18.3 | 21.4 | 21.8 | 18.9 | 15.1 | 10.8 | 7.6 |
| Rain, mm | 23 | 14 | 26 | 23 | 15 | 12 | 1 | 12 | 52 | 26 | 37 | 30 |
| Rainy days (1 mm or more) | 3.1 | 2.4 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 2.2 | 1.7 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 3.2 | 3.1 | 4.0 | 3.4 |
| Sunshine, hours per day | 6.4 | 7.0 | 7.4 | 8.7 | 10.0 | 11.4 | 11.8 | 10.5 | 8.3 | 7.3 | 6.4 | 5.8 |
| Humidity, % | 63 | 60 | 57 | 64 | 61 | 48 | 49 | 53 | 59 | 63 | 64 | 66 |
| Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 6.9 | 18.7 | 19.7 | 6.0 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
The year in numbers
- Köppen climate class
- BSh: Hot semi-arid
- Summer mugginess (August average dew point)
- 18.0°C – oppressive (humidity from a nearby station)
- Days reaching 25 °C / 77 °F
- 151 a year (estimate)
- Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F
- 54 a year
- Days reaching 35 °C / 95 °F
- 5 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
- Average humidity
- 59%
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 ROJALES (7261X), 20.2 km away; sunshine from MURCIA (7178I), 22 km; humidity from MURCIA (7178I), 22 km; temperatures adjusted to the town's altitude. © AEMET.
Around 2055 (projection)
- August average high
- 32.0°C: +1.0 °C compared with today (models range from 0.3 °C to 2.1 °C)
- Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more)
- 88 a year, +14 (models: +6 to +27)
- Frost nights
- 0 a year (+0)
- Rainy days (1 mm or more)
- 27 a year, -4 (models: -13 to +4)
- Rain amount
- -8% over the year: summer -22%, winter -4%
- Sunlight reaching the ground
- +0.1% (models: -0.4% to +0.7%); 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 Orihuela?
Orihuela is in the province of Alicante (Valencian Community), Spain, 25 km from the sea. The nearest airport is Region of Murcia International Airport (RMU), 35 km away.
How many people live in Orihuela?
84,560 registered residents on 1 January 2025 (INE), +2.3% in ten years.
What is the climate of Orihuela?
January afternoons average 16.7°C and nights 6.8°C; August afternoons 30.8°C. 8.4 hours of sunshine a day and 31 rainy days a year (AEMET 1991-2020).
Is Orihuela safe?
Recorded conventional crime in Orihuela was 50.8 offences per 1,000 residents in 2025, about average for Spain (national rate about 41). Home burglaries: 6.17 per 1,000.
How hot is Orihuela in summer?
August afternoons average 30.8°C (1991-2020), with 70 nights a year above 20 °C and 5 days of 35 °C or more.
How cold is Orihuela in winter?
January afternoons average 16.7°C and January nights 6.8°C, with 0 frost nights a year.
Is there a hospital in Orihuela?
Yes: Hospital Vega Baja de Orihuela, a public general hospital with 336 beds. Planned surgery in Valencian Community waits 88 days on average.
Can you fly direct from Orihuela to Amsterdam or London all year?
Yes. Region of Murcia International Airport (RMU) (35 km away) has year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US.
What does it cost to rent or buy in Orihuela?
A typical apartment (95 m²) rented for 450 € a month in 2024 contracts. Homes were appraised at 2,004 €/m² on average over the last four quarters, 64.5% in five years.
Nearby and similar towns
- Nearest towns in this comparison
- Murcia (Murcia, 20 km), Crevillent (Alicante, 22 km), Molina de Segura (Murcia, 24 km), Torrevieja (Alicante, 26 km), Alcantarilla (Murcia, 26 km)
- Most similar towns (summer heat, winter nights, rainy days, home prices, size)
- Sant Vicent del Raspeig/San Vicente del Raspeig (Alicante), Gandia (Valencia), Paterna (Valencia), Torrent (Valencia), Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz)
Distances are straight-line between town centres. Similarity is the distance in standardised values of the five measures.