Spainability rankings · Updated July 2026
Best places in Spain for American retirees
For a US couple who want sun, the coast, good hospitals, easy flights to New York — and some fellow Americans around.
Ranked among the 263 towns with a full published Spainability profile — not all 8,132 municipalities.
Related: Where Americans actually live (census map) and Top towns by US-born count (census sort) .
The ranking
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An ancient hill town of rusticated houses and monastic buildings, famous as the retreat where George Sand and Frédéric Chopin spent a winter together. A strong pick for American retirees — 24 min to a hospital and a health centre close by.
Honest tradeoff: ranks low on affordable cost of living (registered rent €/m²·mo).
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'Barcelona-on-Sea' — a former fishing village turned liberal weekend-escape resort, a noted LGBTQ+ destination with a wild Carnaval and an acclaimed fantasy film festival. A strong pick for American retirees — 23 min to a hospital and a health centre close by.
Honest tradeoff: ranks low on affordable cost of living (registered rent €/m²·mo).
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A reasonable stop with an old town holding a 400-year-old castle and an important Roman villa nearby. A strong pick for American retirees — 15 min to a hospital and a health centre close by.
Honest tradeoff: ranks low on affordable cost of living (registered rent €/m²·mo).
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A quiet fishing village away from major roads, its houses built on the steep Ogoño Cape — prepare for many stairs. A strong pick for American retirees — a health centre close by and direct flights to new york.
Honest tradeoff: ranks low on few rainy days a year.
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A peaceful yet lively city seemingly dedicated to harmony — risen from the ashes of the Spanish Civil War's most infamous bombing. A strong pick for American retirees — 26 min to a hospital and a health centre close by.
Honest tradeoff: ranks low on few rainy days a year.
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A go-ahead, cosmopolitan commercial hub and capital of the Balearics — a world away from the heaving tourist enclaves of the surrounding bay. A strong pick for American retirees — a hospital in town and a health centre close by.
Honest tradeoff: ranks low on affordable cost of living (registered rent €/m²·mo).
- 7
Castelló de la Plana/Castellón de la Plana the Valencia region
American-retiree Spainability Score 98A provincial capital and one of the main cities of the Costa del Azahar, its sights centred on the Pza. Mayor. A strong pick for American retirees — a hospital in town and a health centre close by.
Honest tradeoff: ranks low on direct flights to New York.
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Spain's palm-grove city — Europe's largest palm forest, the mysterious Dama de Elche bust, and a centuries-old mystery play give it three separate UNESCO World Heritage listings. A strong pick for American retirees — a hospital in town and a health centre close by.
Honest tradeoff: ranks low on direct flights to New York.
How we ranked this
We answered our own 17-question quiz as an American couple retiring to Spain — they want sun and warmth, the coast nearby, good hospital access, easy flights back to the US, and some fellow Americans in the community. Then we ran every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities through the same scoring engine the quiz uses, and kept the top-ranked towns with a full published Spainability profile.
- Data INE census (population, origins), AEMET climate normals, regional PISA scores, and the Health Ministry's SISLE waiting lists — each town compared against the Spanish average.
- Reproducible Feed the same persona into our engine and you get this exact order. No hand-picking, no affiliate deals.
- Data completeness A town is excluded from this ranking if it's missing data for any of its key factors (close to a hospital, americans nearby and few rainy days a year) — we don't let a data-sparse town float to the top on the factors it happens to have. 1 otherwise-eligible town was excluded here for missing that data.
- Spainability Score Each town's American-retiree Spainability Score is its percentile among the 8,088 municipalities we could score for this profile — a score of 88 means it fits better than 88% of them. It's the same per-persona percentile shown on that town's own page. How Spainability works →
- What we don't score We don't score visa logistics, US-tax filing, or English-speaking doctors — only climate, coast, hospital drive-time, direct-flight reach to New York and the census count of US-born neighbours.
Compare the top 8
| # | Town | Winter avg | Summer high | US-born /1,000 | Drive to hospital | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valldemossa | 13.4°C | 30°C | 9.74 | 24 min | 14 km |
| 2 | Sitges | 10.9°C | 28.6°C | 15.02 | 23 min | 1 km |
| 3 | Altafulla | 10.4°C | 30°C | 3.07 | 15 min | on the coast |
| 4 | Elantxobe | 10.5°C | 23.2°C | 6.25 | 44 min | 7 km |
| 5 | Gernika-Lumo | 10.5°C | 23.2°C | 4.45 | 26 min | 4 km |
| 6 | Palma | 11.2°C | 31.6°C | 2.06 | 0 min | 5 km |
| 7 | Castelló de la Plana/Castellón de la Plana | 12.3°C | 30.6°C | 1.3 | 0 min | 3 km |
| 8 | Elx/Elche | 13°C | 30.5°C | 0.83 | 0 min | 11 km |
Values from the Spainability dataset (INE / AEMET / regional sources). "no data" = we don't have that number for this town and never guess it.
Questions
Where do American retirees live in Spain?
Americans cluster in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Alicante and along the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca. This list ranks the towns that best fit a retiring American couple's priorities — see our separate census map for where Americans already are.
Can Americans get good healthcare in Spain?
Yes — Spain's healthcare is strong and affordable, though public-system waits vary by region (we rank those separately). Many American retirees use private insurance, which is inexpensive by US standards.
This is a generic American retiring couple
Get your ranking, not this one →
This list scores one representative persona. Answer a dozen honest questions and we score all 8,132 municipalities against your priorities — climate, cost, healthcare, community, getting home — with the tradeoffs shown as plainly as the wins.
Take the 3-minute quiz →Last updated: July 2026 · Next update: on INE's next census release (expected 2027).
Re-generated from the Spainability dataset on each data release — the ranking is reproducible, not editorial.