LIFE EXPECTANCY in Spain is above 85 for men and women in five towns, all in Madrid, according to the recent research report released by the National Statistics Institute (INE) – from Pozuelo de Alarcón (86.2) to Alcobendas (85.3) with Majadahonda, Alcorcón and Las Rozas in the middle, but does not differ greatly between the top 15 highest and the 15 lowest.
Alcobendas (Greater Madrid region) has the second-highest life expectancy in Spain at 85.3 (photo by Alcobendas socialist party, or PSOE)
Completing the top 15 are San Sebastián de los Reyes at 84.8 and, jointly on 84.3, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Madrid city, Pamplona and Collado Villalba, with those in between being Getxo, Leganés, Getafe (Madrid), Sant Cugat del Vallès, and Guadalajara.
The lowest life expectancy in Spain is in La Línea de la Concepción, and is the only one of Spain's 126 largest towns and cities where this is under 80 – at 79.7 – and is even beaten by Ceuta's 80 and Melilla's 80 years and six months, two enclaves in Spain which have historically had some of the lowest life expectancies.
All the others in the bottom 15 are between 81years exactly, and 81 years and 20.5 weeks, or about five months – in ascending order, from precisely 81, are Cádiz, Arrecife, Telde, Algeciras (Cádiz province), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Almería, Huelva, El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz province), and jointly on 81.4 years, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Linares, Málaga and Torrevieja.
Even those with the lowest life expectancies in Spain are still, however, among the highest in the world.
Also below the national average of approximately 83 are Torremolinos, Cáceres (Extremadura), Torrelavega (Cantabria), Paterna (Valencia), Jaén, Castellón (Comunidad Valenciana), Reus (Tarragona province), and Chiclana de la Frontera (Cádiz province), but until Castellón inclusive, all of these are at least 82.
Above the national average of around 83, but not in the top 15, are Oviedo, Santander, Parla, Albacete (south-eastern Castilla-La Mancha), Ávila and Burgos (Castilla y León), with the latter being just short of 84, or 83 years and 11 months.
The research only briefly touched on mortality rates – the highest, at 13.69 per 1,000 annually, or 1.37%, is Ferrol, the town with the oldest population.
Children per woman
Birth rates were taken from figures as at the end of 2018, meaning they are showing as higher than they are now in reality – these have been constantly falling since before the end of the last century, so the mid-2021 average is likely to be below the late-2018 number of 1.26 children per women of fertile age.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com