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Donostia/San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa: population and climate

Gipuzkoa, Basque Country · 189,866 inhabitants (1 Jan 2025)

Living in Donostia/San Sebastián

Donostia/San Sebastián is a mid-sized city of 189,866 inhabitants on the coast in Gipuzkoa (Basque Country), with cool winters and mild, wet summers (January nights 7.6°C, August afternoons 24.4°C). Summers stay moderate: August afternoons average 24.4°C, cooler than 95% of the towns. Public waiting lists in Basque Country are among the shortest in Spain (64 days for planned surgery). Year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US leave from San Sebastián Airport (EAS), 16 km away. Against that, housing is expensive (5,142 €/m² appraised, 967 € a month for a typical apartment); sunshine is scarce by Spanish standards (5.0 hours a day, 143 rainy days a year). Around 2055, Spain's official climate scenarios put August afternoons here at about 26.7°C and the number of warm nights at 15 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 Donostia/San Sebastián

San Sebastián or Donostia, officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián, is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, 20 km from the Spain–France border. The capital city of the province of Gipuzkoa, it has a population of 188,487 as of 2024, with its metropolitan area being 436,500 in 2010. Locals call themselves donostiarra (singular) in Basque, also using this term when speaking in Spanish. It is also a part of Basque Eurocity Bayonne-San Sebastián.

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

Getting there

Nearest airport

San Sebastián Airport (EAS), 16 km, 472,666 passengers in 2025, 11 destinations

Direct to Amsterdam

Bilbao airport, 75 km (year-round); summer only from Biarritz, 40 km

Direct to Brussels (Zaventem or Charleroi)

Biarritz airport, 40 km (year-round)

Direct to London

Biarritz airport, 40 km (year-round); summer only from San Sebastián, 16 km

Direct to Paris

Biarritz airport, 40 km (year-round)

Direct to Frankfurt

Bilbao airport, 75 km (year-round); summer only from Biarritz, 40 km

Direct to the US

Madrid airport, 341 km (year-round); summer only from Bilbao, 75 km

Train station

San Sebastián-Donostia (0.4 km)

Fastest train to Madrid

5 h 04

Fastest train to Barcelona

6 h 16

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 Donostia (in town, 1,034 beds)

Nearest large public hospital (500+ beds, most specialties)

Hospital Universitario Donostia (in town, 1,034 beds)

Nearest private general hospital

Policlínica Gipuzkoa (in town, 149 beds)

General hospitals within 25 km

4

Waiting time for planned surgery (Basque Country)

64 days on average; 2.3% wait more than 6 months (Spain: 121 days)

Waiting time for a first specialist visit

49 days on average; 69.2% 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

CREANAVARRA (curriculum not stated), Pamplona/Iruña, 63.6 km

International schools within 25 km

0

Nearest by curriculum (within 100 km)

British 82 km · American 81 km · French 74 km · German 75 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

+2.0% in ten years (186,095 in 2015, 189,866 in 2025)

Age

25.0% aged 65 or over, 12.6% under 16 (2022; Spain: 20.0% and 14.9%)

Local income

22,330 € net per person per year (2023), 149% of the Spanish average; median 27,650 € per adult-equivalent

Foreign residents

8.7% of all residents; 1.6% of residents aged 65+ (2022)

Largest nationalities

Moroccan 0.6%, Colombian 0.6%; 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

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

88 out of 100: how much there is compared with the other 332 places (big cities score highest)

• 88 food shops (supermarkets, bakeries, greengrocers…)
• 29 pharmacies
• 17 doctors, clinics or hospitals
• 391 cafés, bars and restaurants
• 113 parks and gardens
• 67 bus stops
• 15 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

1,350 (1.43% of all homes; Spain 1.28%), 2.9 tourist beds per 100 residents (May 2026)

Blue Flag beaches

nearest in Barrundia, 62 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

Cantabrico Oriental

Reservoirs now

60.3% full (week of 2026-09-29); the same week in the previous 10 years averaged 72.2%

Worst week 2016-2025

58.9% full (2016-11-08)

Weeks below 40% full, 2016-2025

0% 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

• ViveDonde quality-of-life ranking 2026: 2 (source)
• 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.

The year in numbers

Köppen climate class

Cfb: Oceanic

Summer mugginess (August average dew point)

16.7°C – muggy

Typical hottest day of the year

36.3°C

Typical coldest night of the year

-0.7°C

Days reaching 25 °C / 77 °F

34 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)

9 a year (estimate)

Frost nights (0 °C / 32 °F or less)

6 a year

Overcast days

159 a year

Average humidity

78%

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 DONOSTIA / SAN SEBASTIÁN, IGELDO (1024E), 4.9 km away; temperatures adjusted to the town's altitude. © AEMET.

Around 2055 (projection)

August average high

26.7°C: +0.8 °C compared with today (models range from -0.0 °C to 2.0 °C)

Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more)

15 a year, +10 (models: +2 to +23)

Frost nights

8 a year (-1)

Rainy days (1 mm or more)

129 a year, -10 (models: -23 to +1)

Rain amount

-6% over the year: summer -19%, winter +1%

Sunlight reaching the ground

+0.5% (models: -1.4% to +2.8%); 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

Nearby and similar towns

Nearest towns in this comparison

Errenteria (Gipuzkoa, 7 km), Irun (Gipuzkoa, 16 km), Eibar (Gipuzkoa, 43 km), Durango (Bizkaia, 55 km), Pamplona/Iruña (Navarre, 62 km)

Most similar towns (summer heat, winter nights, rainy days, home prices, size)

Bilbao (Bizkaia), A Coruña (A Coruña), Getxo (Bizkaia), Santander (Cantabria), Barakaldo (Bizkaia)

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

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