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UNDERSTANDING SPANIARDS

REVEALED: The most and least polite cities in Spain

Do you live in the politest city in Spain? Or perhaps in the rudest? A new survey has revealed where in Spain residents are most considerate towards others and where they are the most ill-mannered.

Published: 27 December 2022 13:01 CET
Vigo politest city spain
Vigo is the most polite city in Spain according to a new study. Photo: Mstyslav Chernov / WikiCommons

Spaniards are known for being straight-talking and not overly polite, saying please and sorry (or por favor and perdón) far less in daily conversation than British people, for example.

That’s not to say that they’re rude by definition, they just have a different interpretation of what’s expected and warranted in certain social situations. In fact, Spaniards are far more likely to strike up a conservation with you in a queue than northern Europeans, and if someone is in trouble, they’re likely to jump in to help.

READ ALSO: Nine unwritten rules that explain how Spain works

However, when it comes to being considerate towards others and having good manners, not all Spaniards make the mark, and the inhabitants of some cities fare far worse than others.

According to a study by language learning site Preply, the politest cities in Spain are Vigo and A Coruña, both in Galicia in the rainy northwest of the country.

The stereotypical image of Galicians is that they can be closed-minded, superstitious, and untrusting, but also affectionate, helpful, strong and honest, and it could be that they’re more polite on average as well. 

Residents of Vigo and A Coruña were followed by the eastern coastal city of Valencia on the politeness podium.

READ ALSO – The good, the bad and the ugly: What are the regional stereotypes across Spain? 

For the study, 1,500 residents of the 19 most populated areas of Spain were interviewed and given various scenarios to find out how polite or inconsiderate they considered their neighbours to be.

Talking loudly on the phone, watching videos with the sound on and speaking in a loud voice were all given categories that could be ticked as being rude on public transport, while not slowing down for pedestrians or not letting other cars in were considered examples of rudeness when driving.

The most ill-mannered behaviours according to the study involve shouting in public, pushing into a queue or being rude to workers.

Once the answers were collated, each city was given a score from 1 to 10, with 1 being the politest and 10 being the rudest.

Vigo, situated in Galicia’s Rías Baixas was found to be the most polite with a score of 5.17, closely followed by A Coruña with a score of 5.18.  

Valencia came in third place with a score of 5.28, followed by Murcia-Orihuela with 5.30.

Other polite cities were Oviedo (5.31), Las Palmas (5.39), Zaragoza (5.45), Sevilla (5.45) and Cádiz (5.50). 

Madrid came in the middle of the list with a score of 5.53, while on the rude side of the list were Valladolid (5.58), Málaga (5.61), Barcelona (5.64), Palma de Mallorca (5.69) and Bilbao (5.73). 

On the far end of the scale, Santa Cruz de Tenerife was found to be the city with the least considerate inhabitants with a score of 6.06, followed by Granada with 5.95, Alicante-Elche with 5.81 and San Sebastián with 5.77.

New technology could be partly to blame for bad manners, as according to respondents the most frequent rude behaviour in Spain is being too absorbed in your phone in public (with a score of 6.31), followed by not greeting strangers (6.26) and watching videos on your phone in public (6.21).

Other behaviours that people considered to not be very civic were making noise in public (6.15) and not giving tips (6.05).

On that note, when it comes to leaving tips, the residents of the city of Valladolid were found to be the most generous.

In general, only 26.55 percent of respondents said they  usually leave a tip, while 28.08 percent only do so if they received excellent service. More than 19 percent of respondents confessed to never leaving any tip.

In Valladolid, the most generous city, people said they give an average of 10.18 percent of the bill, while in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the stingiest, they admitted to only giving 6.10 percent of the bill.

If there are any conclusions to be drawn overall about the study’s findings is that there aren’t huge differences between the most and least well-mannered cities in Spain.

Good manners and fear of offending others may not be intrinsic of the Spanish character as in other countries, but that doesn’t stop Spain from being a country with a strong emphasis on community.

READ MORE: The many ways Spaniards refer to your face when you’re being cheeky

Member comments

  1. Interesting that Granada lands on the unfriendly side of the divide. We live there and other than a couple of contractors who treated us like ignorant guiris (I know more about their trades than they knew, and they did not get the jobs) everyone has been fabulous. Of course, there is not much separation in the values in this survey.

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SPAIN EXPLAINED

Do Catalans and Basques support the Spanish football team?

Will people in Catalonia and the Basque Country be cheering for Spain or England at the 2024 Euro final on Sunday?

Published: 12 July 2024 15:39 CEST
Do Catalans and Basques support the Spanish football team?

On Sunday evening at 9pm, Spain will play England in the final of Euro 2024 team.

Not many people had picked Spain to get to the final, yet La Roja have cruised past European giants Italy, Germany and France with its young and less tiki-taka prone style of play.

The team has been notable not only for the performances of (literal) child prodigy Lamine Yamal, but for the way in which this modern, diverse team represents a changing Spain that now has generations of immigrants integrated into society.

READ ALSO: OPINION: Young black stars mirror migrants’ contribution to Spain

This change is recent in Spain and, for most people a welcome one. However, Spain is not only home to diverse communities coming from abroad, but also domestically too.

The two obvious examples are the Basque Country and Catalonia, two regions with strong identities, languages, histories and independence movements. They also have their own ‘national’ football teams, but they’re not officially recognised by Fifa.

So with the country preparing to play in another another major final, will Basques and Catalans be cheering on La Selección Española with the rest of the country?

Catalans

During the heyday of Spain’s national team that won Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup, and Euro 2012, the side had many Catalan and Barça players, a couple of whom had even openly backed the independence movement. Most famous of all is Barça’s Oleguer, who refused to play under Luis Aragonés despite being called up.

As the independence movement really gained momentum around that time, many Catalans (and even some players) refused to support Spain, with some even supporting whichever country was playing against Spain, as Scots and Irish (perhaps everyone) does against England.

In the case of Gerard Piqué, the former Barcelona defender, he was even booed by Spanish fans. However, in an interview with YouTuber Jordi Wild, Piqué stated that he saw no contradiction in being a Catalan separatist and playing for La Roja.

“I think that it is compatible to be independent and play with Spain,” he said. “There are players who are nationalised (from other countries) who play for Spain and they don’t feel Spanish.”

Nowadays there are less Barça players in the national team, just four in total, with Lamine Yamal, Pedri, Ferran Torres and Fermín López.

In terms of your average Catalan football fan, TV viewership figures are good way to measure this. During the semi-final with France, 1.7 million Catalan viewers tuned in, for a 67 percent share, up to 76.2 percent and 1,992,000 viewers in the most watched moments of the match.

These figures would suggest that the Spanish national team has a strong following in Catalonia. This has prompted Barcelona council to install a giant screen in Plaça Catalunya to watch the final on Sunday.

Other cities in Catalonia such Badalona, Castelldefels, Gavà, Terrassa and Santa Coloma had already done so, but not Barcelona, where the council begrudgingly said that it would only do so if Spain reached the final.

This tallies with the drop in support for Catalan independence among Catalans in recent years, especially among middle-aged adults. Catalonia’s regional elections last May saw pro-independence parties lose their absolute majority, which in many people’s eyes meant burying the 2017 independence push for good.

READ MORE: Which Catalans want independence from Spain? 

A 2021 survey found that 46 percent of people in Catalonia feel just as Catalan as they do Spanish, a figure which has probably increased since. 

Identity can be a complex matter, but when it comes to the success of a football team which includes players from your region or your team, it isn’t hard to understand why people are willing to put political differences aside and revel in the sporting victories.

Football and politics often clash at FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou. (Photo by LLUIS GENE / AFP)

Basques

Whereas in the past the Spanish national team was overflowing with Catalans from the great Barcelona teams of the Guardiola era, in this current squad there’s far more Basques or players from Basque sides in Luis de la Fuente’s 2024 side.

There are nine in total: Alex Remiro, Martín Zubimendi, Mikel Merino, Mikel Oyarzábal (Real Sociedad) and Unai Simón, Dani Vivian and Nico Williams (Athletic de Bilbao), as well as French born Aymeric Laporte and Robin Le Normand, both developed in the youth teams of the Basque country’s two main teams.

The New York Times ran an article in late June titled “In the Basque Country, muted cheers for Spain’s football team”, in which its protagonist is a man from Seville on business in Bilbao who rightfully keeps his excitement for every Spanish goal under wraps, given the apparent lack of Spanish football fever in the air.

The Spanish men’s national team has not played in the Basque Country’s biggest city since 1967, even though the threat of terrorist ETA group is long gone. 

Andoni Ortuzar, head of the PNV (Basque Nationalist Party), openly said he wanted England to win the Euro rather than Spain.

When Spain played France in the semis, Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the EH Bildu party which has its roots in ETA, said “unfortunately today one of the two states that deny us Basques the right to play with our national team is going to qualify”. 

These are somewhat extreme views that not all Basques share, of course. However, there is a sense that hanging a Spanish flag from your balcony during the Euros, or wearing a Spanish football jersey, won’t get you into as much trouble as it would have done two decades ago in the Basque Country, but that you could still be met with some disapproving looks and comments.

Having a Spanish team loaded with Basque players, including star striker Nico Williams of Athletic Bilbao (who also contradicts the traditional Basque image himself) may be helping to win more hearts among the vascos.

Almost 63 percent of TV audiences in the territory watched the Spain-France semi-final, whether it was begrudgingly or not.

“Beyond ideologies, there’s a passion for football,” La Roja centre-back Dani Vivian, who hails from Vitoria-Gateitz and plays for Athletic, said when asked if he thought his Basque compatriots supported the Spanish side.

“People in the Basque Country value good football.”

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