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LIFE EXPECTANCY

In which parts of Spain do people live longest?

Life expectancy in Spain is the second highest in the world but new data from the country’s national statistics institute reveals where exactly in Spain people live the longest, and it isn’t where you might expect. 

Published: 1 June 2021 12:50 CEST
In which parts of Spain do people live longest?
Life expectancy in Spain is the highest in the EU. Photo: ANDER GILLENEA/AFP

People in Spain are forecast to have the longest life expectancy in the world by 2040 – with a projected average lifespan of nearly 85.8 years.

It’s hard to fully understand the Spanish secret to a long life, but according to the scientists it’s a combination of their Mediterranean diet, a good healthcare system, plenty of walking, a close-knit society and a helpful serving of hedonism. If they cut down on drinking and smoking, Spaniards could no doubt live even longer.

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The current life expectancy in Spain has dropped from 84 down to 82.4 in large part due to the coronavirus pandemic, but new data revealed by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) reveals where exactly in Spain people lived the longest in 2018, in normal times before the virus. 

The six municipalities where people live longest in Spain are all in the Madrid region.

The highest life expectancy in the whole country is that of the residents of Pozuelo de Alarcón with an average of 86.2 years. 

Pozuelo is also the wealthiest municipality in the capital and in Spain according to INE stats with average net yearly earnings of €28,326 per inhabitant, which suggests that the higher standard of living is also helping people live longer in Pozuelo.  

The other Madrid region municipalities where people reach 85 years of age or more on average are Majadahonda (85.9 years), Alcorcón (85.4 years), Las Rozas (85.3 years) and Alcobendas (85.3 years), all of which are relatively wealthy residential parts of Madrid, with the exception of Alcorcón. 

In sixth place is another Madrid municipality, San Sebastián de los Reyes (84.8 years), followed by Getxo in Bilbao (84.7), then two more Madrid municipalities – Leganés (84.5) and Getafe (84.4) – followed by Sant Cugat del Vallès, the only Barcelona municipality to make the top ten. 

Table showing the municipalities with the highest and lowest life expectancy in Spain. Source: INE

What exactly is behind people in Madrid living longer than in other parts of Spain? 

The stressful life in the capital, the higher levels of air pollution and reported cuts to public health spending in the region in recent years could all contribute to the assumption that big city life takes its toll on life expectancy. 

In other places around the globe where people live longest, such as Okinawa in Japan and Italy’s Corsica (both islands), an active and social life in less stressful rural settings are thought to contribute to making many locals live past 90. 

But in Spain it seems that adding those extra years to an already long and healthy life could be influenced by income. That’s perfectly evidenced in countries with large rich-poor divides such as the US.

The places with the lowest life expectancy in Spain – which at its very lowest is a very reasonable 79.7 years of age – are mainly lower-income coastal locations with milder climates in the Canary Islands and Andalusia, including cities such as Malaga, Almería, Cádiz, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (see table above).

So maybe there’s something about the hustle and bustle of the capital that keeps Madrileños enjoying life that little bit longer. According to Spanish fact-checking website maldita.es, the stats should have included the high death rate in the capital during the pandemic.

Either way, wherever it is in Spain, people tend to live longer than anywhere else in the EU, and by 2040 their life expectancy will be the highest in the world.

It’s certainly a factor to consider if you’re thinking of moving here, España might just keep you alive for longer. 

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Member comments

  1. Corsica is NOT Italian but French. Although a lot of people in Corsica would protest against that too.

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MONEY

Rampant branch closures and job cuts help Spain’s banks post huge earnings

Spain’s biggest banks this week reported huge profits in 2021 and cheered their return to recovery post-Covid, but ruthless cost-cutting in the form of thousands of layoffs, hundreds of branch closures and the removal of many ATMs have left customers in Spain suffering, in this latest example of ‘Capitalismo 2.0’. 

Published: 3 February 2022 13:34 CET
A man withdraws cash from a Santander branch in Madrid.
More than 3,500 Santander workers lost their jobs in Spain in 2021 and a further 2,000 more employees working for Santander across Europe were also laid off. Photo: PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP

Spanish banking giant Santander on Wednesday said it has bounced back from the pandemic as it returned to profit last year, beating analyst expectations and exceeding its pre-COVID earnings.

Likewise, Spain’s second-largest bank BBVA said on Thursday that it saw a strong rebound in 2021 following the Covid crisis, tripling its net profits thanks to a recovery in business activity.

It’s a similar story for Unicaja (€137 million profit in 2021), Caixabank (€5.2 billion profit thanks to merge with Bankia), Sabadell (€530 million profit last year), Abanca (€323 million profit) and all of Spain’s other main banks.

This may be promising news for Spain’s banking sector, but their profits have come at a cost for many of their employees and customers. 

In 2021, 19,000 bank employees lost their jobs, almost all through state-approved ERE layoffs, meant for companies struggling financially.

BBVA employees protest against layoffs in May 2021 in Madrid. Spain’s second-largest bank BBVA is looking to shed 3,800 jobs, affecting 16 percent of its staff, in a move denounced by unions as “scandalous”. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)

Around 11 percent of bank branches in Spain have also been closed down in 2021 as part of Spanish banks’ attempts to cut costs, even though they’ve agreed to pay just under €5 billion in compensation.

Rampant branch closures have in turn resulted in 2,200 ATMs being removed since the Covid-19 pandemic began, even though the use of cajeros automáticos went up by 20 percent in 2021.

There are now 48,300 ATMs in Spain, levels not seen since 2001.

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Apart from losses caused by the coronavirus crisis, Spain’s financial institutions have justified the lay-offs, branch closures and ATM removals under the premise that there was already a shift to online banking taking place among customers. 

But the problem has been around for longer in a country with stark population differences between the cities and so-called ‘Empty Spain’, with rural communities and elderly people bearing the brunt of it. 

 

Caixabank laid off almost 6,500 workers in the first sixth months of 2021. Photo: ANDER GILLENEA/AFP

Just this month, a 78-year-old Valencian man has than collected 400,000+ signatures in an online petition calling for Spanish banks to offer face-to-face customer service that’s “humane” to elderly people, spurring the Bank of Spain and even Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to publicly say they would address the problem.

READ MORE: ‘I’m old, not stupid’ – How one Spanish senior is demanding face-to-face bank service

It’s worth noting that between 2008 and 2019, Spain had the highest number of branch closures and bank job cuts in Europe, with 48 percent of its branches shuttered compared with a bloc-wide average of 31 percent.

Below is more detailed information on how Santander and BBVA, Spain’s two biggest banks, have reported their huge profits in 2021.

Santander

Driven by a strong performance in the United States and Britain, the bank booked a net profit of €8.1 billion in 2021, close to a 12-year high. 

It was a huge improvement from 2020 when the pandemic hit and the bank suffered a net loss of €8.7 billion after it was forced to write down the value of several of its branches, particularly in the UK. It was also higher than 2019, when the bank posted a net profit of €6.5 billion.

Analysts from FactSet were expecting profits of €7.9 billion. 

“Our 2021 results demonstrate once again the value of our scale and presence across both developed and developing markets, with attributable profit 25 per cent higher than pre-COVID levels in 2019,” said chief executive Ana Botin in a statement.

Net banking income, the equivalent to turnover, also increased, reaching €33.4 billion, compared to €31.9 billion in 2020. This dynamic was made possible by a strong increase in customer numbers, with the group now counting almost 153 million customers worldwide. 

“We have added five million new customers in the last 12 months alone,” said Botin.

Santander performed particularly well in Europe and North America, with profits doubling in constant euros compared to 2020. In the UK, where Santander has a strong presence, current profit even “quadrupled” over the same period to €1.6 billion.

Last year’s net loss was the first in Banco Santander’s history, after having to revise downwards the value of several of its subsidiaries, notably in the UK, because of COVID.

The banking giant, which cut nearly 3,500 jobs at the end of 2020, in September announced an interim shareholder payout of €1.7 billion for its 2021 results. “In the coming weeks, we will announce additional compensation linked to the 2021 results,” it said.

BBVA

The group, which mainly operates in Spain but also in Latin America, Mexico and Turkey, posted profits of €4.65 billion ($5.25 billion), up from €1.3 billion a year earlier.

The result, which followed a solid fourth quarter with profits of €1.34 billion, was higher than expected, with FactSet analysts expecting a figure of €4.32 billion .

Excluding non-recurring items, such as the outcome of a restructuring plan launched last year, it generated profits of 5.07 billion euros in what was the highest figure “in 10 years”, the bank said in a statement.

In 2020, the Spanish bank saw its net profit tumble 63 percent as a result of asset depreciation and provisions taken against an increase in bad loans due to the economic fallout of the virus crisis.

“The economic recovery over the past year has brought with it a marked upturn in banking activity, mainly in the loan portfolio,” the bank explained, pointing to a reduction of the provisions put in place because of Covid.

In 2021, BBVA added a “record” 8.7 million new customers, largely due to the growth of its online activities. It now has 81.7 million customers worldwide.

The group’s net interest margins also rose 6.1 percent year-on-year to €14.7 billion, said the bank, which is undergoing a cost-cutting drive.

So far, it has axed 2,935 jobs and closed down 480 branches as the banking sector undergoes increasing digitalisation and fewer and fewer transactions are carried out over the counter.

At the end of 2020, BBVA sold its US unit to PNC Financial Services for nearly 10 billion euros and decided to reinvest some of the funds in the Turkish market.

In November, it launched a bid to take full control of its Turkish lending subsidiary Garanti, offering €2.25 billion ($2.6 billion) to buy the 50.15 percent stake it does not yet own.

The deal should be finalised in the first quarter of 2022.

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