Rota, Cádiz: population, climate, prices
Cádiz, Andalusia · 29,289 inhabitants (1 Jan 2025)
Living in Rota
Rota is a small town of 29,289 inhabitants on the coast in Cádiz (Andalusia), with cool winters and hot summers (January nights 6.6°C, August afternoons 30.8°C). It is one of the sunniest places in Spain: 8.5 hours of sunshine a day on average. The nearest international school (David Glasgow Farragut Elementary And High Schools, American curriculum) is 0.9 km away. Year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US leave from Jerez Airport (XRY), 30 km away. Against that, public waiting lists in Andalusia are long (173 days on average for planned surgery); 1.8% of all homes are holiday lets (Spain 1.3%), so summers are busy and rents are under pressure; the nearest public hospital is 11 km away in Cádiz. Around 2055, Spain's official climate scenarios put August afternoons here at about 31.5°C and the number of warm nights at 45 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 Rota
Rota is a municipality and town in the Province of Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain. Its surface area is 84 km2 and is bordered by the towns of Chipiona, Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María. It is located near the city of Jerez de la Frontera and is 36 kilometers away from the provincial capital, Cádiz. It had in the year 2009 28,516 inhabitants, with a density of 339 inhabitants / km2. It belongs to two associations, the Association of Municipalities of Cádiz Bay along with the municipalities of Cádiz, Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María, San Fernando, Chiclana de la Frontera and Puerto Real; and the Association of Municipalities of the Lower Guadalquivir that comprises municipalities of Northwest Coast of Andalusia.
Located along the Bay of Cádiz in the Atlantic Ocean, it is halfway between Portugal and Gibraltar, is predominantly a tourist town, a vacation/holiday destination for travelers from all over Europe. During the low season, its main business activity is the fishing industry. In the municipality is located the Naval Station Rota, which is the largest source of employment to the municipality. It also served as a transoceanic abort landing site for the Space Shuttle program.
From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Read more on Wikipedia →
Getting there
- Nearest airport
- Jerez Airport (XRY), 30 km, 884,539 passengers in 2025, 25 destinations
- Direct to Amsterdam
- Seville airport, 98 km (year-round)
- Direct to Brussels (Zaventem or Charleroi)
- Seville airport, 98 km (year-round); summer only from Jerez, 30 km
- Direct to London
- Seville airport, 98 km (year-round); summer only from Jerez, 30 km
- Direct to Paris
- Seville airport, 98 km (year-round)
- Direct to Frankfurt
- Seville airport, 98 km (year-round); summer only from Jerez, 30 km
- Direct to the US
- Lisbon airport, 342 km (year-round); summer only from Faro, 150 km
- Train station
- Puerto de Santa María (12.8 km)
- Fastest train to Madrid
- 4 h 06
- 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 Puerta del Mar (11 km away, in Cádiz, 740 beds)
- Nearest large public hospital (500+ beds, most specialties)
- Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar (11 km away, in Cádiz, 740 beds)
- Nearest private general hospital
- Hospital General Santa Maria del Puerto (11 km away, in Puerto de Santa María, El, 238 beds)
- General hospitals within 25 km
- 11
- Waiting time for planned surgery (Andalusia)
- 173 days on average; 32.2% wait more than 6 months (Spain: 121 days)
- Waiting time for a first specialist visit
- 136 days on average; 57.1% 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
- David Glasgow Farragut Elementary and High Schools (American), Rota, 0.9 km
- International schools within 25 km
- 5
- Nearest by curriculum (within 100 km)
- British 12 km · American 0.9 km · French 92 km
Within 30 km (up to five):
| School | Curriculum | Levels in the register | Where | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Glasgow Farragut Elementary and High Schools | American | infant, primary | Rota | 0.9 km |
| Bahía Montessori School | curriculum not stated | infant, primary | El Puerto de Santa María | 12 km |
| The English Centre | British | infant | El Puerto de Santa María | 12 km |
| Sage College- The British School of Jerez | British | not listed | Jerez de la Frontera | 19 km |
| El Altillo International School | curriculum not stated | not listed | Jerez de la Frontera | 24 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 (29,123 in 2015, 29,289 in 2025)
- Age
- 17.0% aged 65 or over, 15.8% under 16 (2022; Spain: 20.0% and 14.9%)
- Local income
- 12,985 € net per person per year (2023), 86% of the Spanish average; median 17,150 € per adult-equivalent
- Foreign residents
- 4.3% of all residents; 3.1% of residents aged 65+ (2022)
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
- 46 out of 100: how much there is compared with the other 332 places (big cities score highest)
- 15 food shops (supermarkets, bakeries, greengrocers…)
- 8 pharmacies
- 2 doctors, clinics or hospitals
- 52 cafés, bars and restaurants
- 20 parks and gardens
- 28 bus stops
- 2 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
- 471 (1.75% of all homes; Spain 1.28%), 8.2 tourist beds per 100 residents (May 2026)
- Blue Flag beaches
- 6 in town; 22 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
- Guadalete Y Barbate
- Reservoirs now
- 75.9% full (week of 2026-09-29); the same week in the previous 10 years averaged 37.5%
- Worst week 2016-2025
- 14.4% full (2024-01-09)
- Weeks below 40% full, 2016-2025
- 45% 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
- idealista: best places to retire (2026): listed (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 | 16.3 | 17.5 | 19.8 | 21.6 | 24.8 | 27.9 | 30.5 | 30.8 | 28.1 | 24.8 | 20.0 | 17.1 |
| Average nightly low, °C | 6.6 | 7.4 | 9.7 | 11.6 | 14.4 | 17.6 | 19.5 | 19.9 | 17.9 | 14.8 | 10.4 | 7.9 |
| Rain, mm | 67 | 51 | 58 | 46 | 31 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 26 | 81 | 88 | 81 |
| Rainy days (1 mm or more) | 6.2 | 5.6 | 6.4 | 5.7 | 3.2 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 6.1 | 6.9 | 7.1 |
| Sunshine, hours per day | 5.7 | 6.8 | 7.7 | 8.9 | 10.5 | 11.7 | 12.1 | 11.1 | 9.1 | 7.4 | 6.0 | 5.2 |
| Humidity, % | 78 | 74 | 70 | 67 | 63 | 61 | 62 | 64 | 69 | 73 | 76 | 79 |
| Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 3.6 | 9.3 | 15.8 | 16.1 | 8.6 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
The year in numbers
- Köppen climate class
- Csa: Hot-summer Mediterranean
- Summer mugginess (August average dew point)
- 18.2°C – oppressive
- Typical hottest day of the year
- 38.3°C
- Typical coldest night of the year
- 0.2°C
- Days reaching 25 °C / 77 °F
- 144 a year (estimate)
- Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F
- 56 a year
- Days reaching 35 °C / 95 °F
- 5 a year (estimate)
- Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more)
- 30 a year (estimate)
- Frost nights (0 °C / 32 °F or less)
- 1 a year
- Overcast days
- 56 a year
- Average humidity
- 70%
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 ROTA, BASE NAVAL (5910), 3.3 km away; temperatures adjusted to the town's altitude. © AEMET.
Around 2055 (projection)
- August average high
- 31.5°C: +0.7 °C compared with today (models range from 0.2 °C to 1.3 °C)
- Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more)
- 45 a year, +15 (models: +5 to +33)
- Frost nights
- 1 a year (+0)
- Rainy days (1 mm or more)
- 43 a year, -8 (models: -14 to -2)
- Rain amount
- -11% over the year: summer -42%, winter -5%
- Sunlight reaching the ground
- +0.5% (models: -0.9% to +2.1%); 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 Rota?
Rota is in the province of Cádiz (Andalusia), Spain, on the coast. The nearest airport is Jerez Airport (XRY), 30 km away.
How many people live in Rota?
29,289 registered residents on 1 January 2025 (INE), +0.6% in ten years.
What is the climate of Rota?
January afternoons average 16.3°C and nights 6.6°C; August afternoons 30.8°C. 8.5 hours of sunshine a day and 51 rainy days a year (AEMET 1991-2020).
Is Rota safe?
Recorded conventional crime in Rota was 43.5 offences per 1,000 residents in 2025, about average for Spain (national rate about 41). Home burglaries: 2.01 per 1,000.
How hot is Rota in summer?
August afternoons average 30.8°C (1991-2020), with 30 nights a year above 20 °C and 5 days of 35 °C or more.
How cold is Rota in winter?
January afternoons average 16.3°C and January nights 6.6°C, with 1 frost nights a year.
Is there a hospital in Rota?
The nearest public general hospital is Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar in Cádiz, 11 km away. Planned surgery in Andalusia waits 173 days on average.
Can you fly direct from Rota to Amsterdam or London all year?
Yes. Jerez Airport (XRY) (30 km away) has year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US.
What does it cost to rent or buy in Rota?
A typical apartment (78 m²) rented for 550 € a month in 2024 contracts. Homes were appraised at 2,836 €/m² on average over the last four quarters, 64.3% in five years.
Nearby and similar towns
- Nearest towns in this comparison
- El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz, 11 km), Cádiz (Cádiz, 11 km), Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz, 17 km), Puerto Real (Cádiz, 18 km), San Fernando (Cádiz, 22 km)
- Most similar towns (summer heat, winter nights, rainy days, home prices, size)
- Paiporta (Valencia), Sant Andreu de la Barca (Barcelona), Alboraia/Alboraya (Valencia), Calafell (Tarragona), Molins de Rei (Barcelona)
Distances are straight-line between town centres. Similarity is the distance in standardised values of the five measures.