A score from 0 to 100 for 50 Spanish provinces and 18 Portuguese districts, where 100 is the best place to live for a family looking for a second home in Europe. It is based on ten criteria, including how long and how healthily people live. Click an area for details, scroll to zoom, and switch the base map to a satellite photo to see the landscape.
How the score works
Each area gets 1 to 5 points (5 is best) on ten criteria. The points of the criteria you leave switched on are added up and converted to a score from 0 to 100 (total ÷ maximum × 100). All criteria carry equal weight. Switch a criterion off to leave it out: the colours, scores and ranking below are recalculated from the criteria that stay on. Click a criterion name to see what it takes into account.
The three countries side by side
Average points (1 to 5) of the areas in each country. Croatia is lowest of the three on health and longevity (every county gets 1 point), services and transport, and highest on water. Averages hide big differences between areas, so open the map for the detail.
Ranking
About the data
The first nine criteria come from the original regional comparison and were split into provinces and districts. The tenth, health and longevity, was added later from official statistics (see below) and moved some places up or down: for example Girona and Tarragona gained, Viana do Castelo and Lisboa lost a little.
Health and longevity, in short. It is a weighted mix of seven indicators, each converted to a standard score and ranked across the 68 areas. Spain has province-level life expectancy and centenarian counts, while the other indicators exist only for the 17 autonomous communities. Portugal has only life expectancy, which for most districts is estimated from region-level figures, so its health grades are the least certain. Life expectancy is shaped by income and education as well as health care, and retirees moving to the coast or young people leaving rural provinces distort the numbers. Centenarians per 100,000 are inflated in depopulated inland provinces such as Soria and Zamora, which is why they carry only 12% of the weight.
Water for Spain comes from a drought-risk map built from Spanish ministry reservoir and drought reports and climate projections. For Portugal it is my estimate, based on reservoir levels (77% nationally in September 2026) and the history of drought in the south. All other points are my own judgement from public sources, not measurements, so a difference of 1 to 2 points between neighbouring areas is not meaningful. Madeira, the Azores, Ceuta and Melilla are not rated.
Croatia. The 21 counties (20 counties and the City of Zagreb) are scored on the same ten criteria and the same 0 to 100 scale. Exactly identical data do not exist for the three countries, because Spain, Portugal and Croatia publish different statistics at different levels. Where a common source exists (life expectancy at birth from Eurostat, regional) it is used the same way; elsewhere the table below shows what each country’s points rest on. Water, natural hazards, climate, people, services and transport for Croatia are my judgement from public sources and are marked as estimates. Crime is compared only within Croatia, since police definitions differ between countries and coastal counties are inflated by tourists. House prices in the thinly populated interior rest on few sales.
Health and longevity in Croatia. Only life expectancy at birth could be matched across all three countries, and for Croatia it exists only for four NUTS 2 regions, so counties in the same region share a figure (77.2 to 80.2 years). Graded against the same thresholds as Spain and Portugal, every Croatian county falls in the lowest group, because Croatian life expectancy is lower than in any Spanish or Portuguese area. Life expectancy at 65, healthy life years, self-rated health and smoking are shown for context only. Croatian life expectancy has risen in recent years, but the gap to Spain (84.0 years nationally) and Portugal (82.5) is still large.
How comparable are the data?
| Criterion | What the points rest on in Spain and Portugal | What they rest on in Croatia | Comparable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Climate and sea | My judgement from public climate tables | The same method | Yes, medium confidence |
| Water | Spain: drought-risk map from ministry reports. Portugal: my estimate | My estimate from Hrvatske vode and DHMZ reports, converted with the same bands | Roughly, low confidence |
| Natural hazards | Wildfire, flood and earthquake exposure, my judgement | The same, from the 2024 national risk assessment and news | Roughly, medium |
| People | My judgement (openness, English, expats) | The same, with the EF English Proficiency Index | Roughly, medium |
| Migration | Foreign residents and crime per 1,000, my judgement | Net immigration (DZS, 2025), crime (MUP, 2024) and border pressure | Not strictly: definitions differ |
| Land | Rural house and plot prices from listings | Median price per m² (Ministry of Construction, 2025) | Roughly, medium |
| Services | Hospitals, schools, services, my judgement | The same, with hospital data from HZJZ | Roughly, medium |
| Stability and faith | Country level | Country level (EU, Schengen, Global Peace Index 2026) | Yes |
| Transport | Travel time to a large airport and its flights | The same, with airport traffic from DZS | Yes, medium |
| Health and longevity | Spain: seven indicators by province or region. Portugal: life expectancy only | Life expectancy at birth by NUTS 2 region (Eurostat) | Yes for life expectancy at birth, the one shared indicator |
Province, district and county outlines are generalised (Natural Earth, 1:10 million), so at street level they only roughly follow the real boundaries and the coastline of the satellite photo.
- MITECO drought observatory
- The Portugal Post, reservoirs at 77%
- Wego, Algarve 2026
- Ministerio de Sanidad, life expectancies 2024
- INE, European Health Survey 2023
- INE provincial life expectancy 2021 (65ymas)
- INE Portugal, life expectancy 2022 to 2024 (Observador)
- Eurostat, life expectancy and healthy life years
- Eurostat, self-perceived health (EU-SILC)
- Ministry of the Interior (MUP), crime 2024
- Croatian Bureau of Statistics, population, migration, airports
- Ministry of Construction, real-estate market report 2025
- HZJZ, hospitals and health survey
- EF English Proficiency Index
- Global Peace Index 2026
- Hrvatske vode
- Natural Earth
- Leaflet
Scores are my estimates from public sources, not an official classification. Data as of 14 October 2026. Check the details with local authorities before buying property.