Sitges, Barcelona: population, climate, prices
Barcelona, Catalonia · 32,609 inhabitants (1 Jan 2025)
Living in Sitges
Sitges is a small town of 32,609 inhabitants on the coast in Barcelona (Catalonia), with cool winters and warm summers (January nights 5.4°C, August afternoons 28.8°C). 24.7% of residents are foreign nationals (13.2% among the over-65s), so English-speaking services are common. The nearest international school (The British School Of Barcelona Sitges, British curriculum) is 1.4 km away. Year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US leave from Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN), 24 km away. Against that, housing is expensive (4,676 €/m² appraised, 918 € a month for a typical apartment); recorded crime is high (74.8 per 1,000 residents; Spain about 41, inflated by crimes against the many visitors); 4.8% 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 29.8°C and the number of warm nights at 71 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 Sitges
Sitges (Catalan: [ˈsidʒəs], Spanish: [ˈsitʃes]; Old Catalan for 'underground [grain] silos') is a town about 35 kilometres southwest of Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain, renowned worldwide for its film festival, Carnival, and Catalan culture. Located between the Garraf Massif and the Mediterranean Sea, it is known for its beaches, nightspots, LGBTQ+ tourism, and historical sites.
While the roots of Sitges' artistic reputation date back to the late 19th century, when painter Santiago Rusiñol took up residence there during the summer, the town became a centre for the 1960s counterculture in mainland Spain during the Francoist regime, and became known as "Ibiza in miniature".
Today, the economy of Sitges is based on tourism and culture, offering more than 4,500 hotel beds, half of them in four-star hotels.
Almost 35% of the approximately 26,000 permanent inhabitants are estimated to be foreigners, a majority from Northern Europe.
There are 17 beaches in Sitges, the most popular being Platja de Sant Sebastià, Platja de la Fragata, Platja de la Bassa Rodona, Platja dels Balmins, Platja de la Ribera and Platja d'Aiguadolç.
From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Read more on Wikipedia →
Getting there
- Nearest airport
- Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN), 24 km, 57,483,036 passengers in 2025, 236 destinations
- Direct to Amsterdam
- Barcelona airport, 24 km (year-round)
- Direct to Brussels (Zaventem or Charleroi)
- Barcelona airport, 24 km (year-round)
- Direct to London
- Barcelona airport, 24 km (year-round)
- Direct to Paris
- Barcelona airport, 24 km (year-round)
- Direct to Frankfurt
- Barcelona airport, 24 km (year-round)
- Direct to the US
- Barcelona airport, 24 km (year-round)
- Train station
- Vilanova i la Geltrú (6.3 km)
- Fastest train to Madrid
- no direct train
- Fastest train to Barcelona
- 0 h 32
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 Residencia Sant Camil - Consorci Sanitari de L'Alt Penedés I Garraf (4 km away, in Sant Pere de Ribes, 295 beds)
- Nearest large public hospital (500+ beds, most specialties)
- Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge (28 km away, in Hospitalet de Llobregat, L', 1,086 beds)
- Nearest private general hospital
- Policlínica Comarcal del Vendrell. (21 km away, in Santa Oliva, 136 beds)
- General hospitals within 25 km
- 6
- Waiting time for planned surgery (Catalonia)
- 142 days on average; 32.0% wait more than 6 months (Spain: 121 days)
- Waiting time for a first specialist visit
- 120 days on average; 72.3% 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 British School of Barcelona Sitges (British), Sitges, 1.4 km
- International schools within 25 km
- 7
- Nearest by curriculum (within 100 km)
- British 1.4 km · American 26 km · French 4.3 km · German 28 km
Within 30 km (up to five):
| School | Curriculum | Levels in the register | Where | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The British School of Barcelona Sitges | British | infant, primary | Sitges | 1.4 km |
| The Olive Tree School | curriculum not stated | infant, primary, secondary | Sant Pere de Ribes | 4.3 km |
| École Française Bel Air | French | not listed | Sant Pere de Ribes | 4.3 km |
| Richmond International School | curriculum not stated | not listed | Sant Pere de Ribes | 5.3 km |
| The British School of Barcelona | British | infant, primary, secondary | Castelldefels | 16 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
- +15.4% in ten years (28,269 in 2015, 32,609 in 2025)
- Age
- 19.1% aged 65 or over, 13.9% under 16 (2022; Spain: 20.0% and 14.9%)
- Local income
- 21,387 € net per person per year (2023), 142% of the Spanish average; median 24,150 € per adult-equivalent
- Foreign residents
- 24.7% of all residents; 13.2% of residents aged 65+ (2022)
- Largest nationalities
- British 3.7%, Italian 2.8%, French 2.4%, German 1.6%, Argentinian 0.9%; all EU citizens 10.8% (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
- 49 out of 100: how much there is compared with the other 332 places (big cities score highest)
- 21 food shops (supermarkets, bakeries, greengrocers…)
- 7 pharmacies
- 2 doctors, clinics or hospitals
- 156 cafés, bars and restaurants
- 18 parks and gardens
- 11 bus stops
- 8 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
- 929 (4.83% of all homes; Spain 1.28%), 15.5 tourist beds per 100 residents (May 2026)
- Blue Flag beaches
- 9 in town; 28 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
- Cuencas Internas De Cataluña
- Reservoirs now
- 73.6% full (week of 2026-09-29); the same week in the previous 10 years averaged 57.5%
- Worst week 2016-2025
- 14.5% full (2024-03-05)
- Weeks below 40% full, 2016-2025
- 26% 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 | 13.9 | 14.4 | 16.3 | 18.4 | 21.6 | 25.4 | 28.2 | 28.8 | 25.9 | 22.2 | 17.5 | 14.4 |
| Average nightly low, °C | 5.4 | 5.8 | 8.0 | 10.3 | 13.7 | 17.8 | 20.7 | 21.2 | 17.9 | 14.2 | 9.0 | 6.1 |
| Rain, mm | 41 | 30 | 42 | 47 | 42 | 26 | 27 | 51 | 86 | 82 | 46 | 37 |
| Rainy days (1 mm or more) | 4.2 | 3.4 | 4.4 | 5.6 | 4.6 | 3.1 | 2.1 | 4.2 | 6.0 | 6.4 | 4.6 | 3.9 |
| Sunshine, hours per day | 4.4 | 5.8 | 6.9 | 7.6 | 8.3 | 8.9 | 9.6 | 8.8 | 7.4 | 5.7 | 4.5 | 3.8 |
| Humidity, % | 68 | 67 | 68 | 68 | 67 | 65 | 65 | 66 | 68 | 72 | 69 | 69 |
| Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.9 | 6.9 | 8.7 | 1.1 | 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
- 33.1°C
- Typical coldest night of the year
- -0.5°C
- Days reaching 25 °C / 77 °F
- 102 a year (estimate)
- Days reaching 30 °C / 86 °F
- 19 a year
- Days reaching 35 °C / 95 °F
- 0 a year (estimate)
- Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more)
- 55 a year (estimate)
- Frost nights (0 °C / 32 °F or less)
- 3 a year
- Overcast days
- 51 a year
- Average humidity
- 68%
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 BARCELONA AEROPUERTO (0076), 21.9 km away; temperatures adjusted to the town's altitude. © AEMET.
Around 2055 (projection)
- August average high
- 29.8°C: +1.0 °C compared with today (models range from 0.5 °C to 2.0 °C)
- Warm nights (low of 20 °C / 68 °F or more)
- 71 a year, +16 (models: +9 to +27)
- Frost nights
- 2 a year (+0)
- Rainy days (1 mm or more)
- 48 a year, -5 (models: -9 to +0)
- Rain amount
- -7% over the year: summer -25%, winter -2%
- Sunlight reaching the ground
- +0.1% (models: -0.8% to +1.0%); 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 Sitges?
Sitges is in the province of Barcelona (Catalonia), Spain, on the coast. The nearest airport is Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN), 24 km away.
How many people live in Sitges?
32,609 registered residents on 1 January 2025 (INE), +15.4% in ten years.
What is the climate of Sitges?
January afternoons average 13.9°C and nights 5.4°C; August afternoons 28.8°C. 6.8 hours of sunshine a day and 52 rainy days a year (AEMET 1991-2020).
Is Sitges safe?
Recorded conventional crime in Sitges was 74.8 offences per 1,000 residents in 2025, high for Spain (national rate about 41). Home burglaries: 3.22 per 1,000. Part of it is crimes against visitors, which count against the residents.
How hot is Sitges in summer?
August afternoons average 28.8°C (1991-2020), with 55 nights a year above 20 °C and 0 days of 35 °C or more.
How cold is Sitges in winter?
January afternoons average 13.9°C and January nights 5.4°C, with 3 frost nights a year.
Is there a hospital in Sitges?
The nearest public general hospital is Hospital Residencia Sant Camil - Consorci Sanitari de L'Alt Penedés I Garraf in Sant Pere de Ribes, 4 km away. Planned surgery in Catalonia waits 142 days on average.
Can you fly direct from Sitges to Amsterdam or London all year?
Yes. Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN) (24 km away) has year-round direct flights to Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and the US.
What does it cost to rent or buy in Sitges?
A typical apartment (74 m²) rented for 918 € a month in 2024 contracts. Homes were appraised at 4,676 €/m² on average over the last four quarters, 34.5% in five years.
Nearby and similar towns
- Nearest towns in this comparison
- Sant Pere de Ribes (Barcelona, 4 km), Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona, 7 km), Vilafranca del Penedès (Barcelona, 15 km), Castelldefels (Barcelona, 15 km), Gavà (Barcelona, 19 km)
- Most similar towns (summer heat, winter nights, rainy days, home prices, size)
- Calafell (Tarragona), Sant Josep de sa Talaia (Balearic Islands), Sant Joan Despí (Barcelona), Llíria (Valencia), Bétera (Valencia)
Distances are straight-line between town centres. Similarity is the distance in standardised values of the five measures.