Thursday 29 September 2011

Study confirms high quality of life in Igualada


A ranking of the quality of life in 643 Spanish municipalities has recently been presented by the University of Oviedo (region: Asturias) and Igualada (comarca: Anoia) - in the 43th position -, has the best results of Penedès.

Interestingly, none of the 10 biggest cities in Spain make it to the top-50 of this ranking – Barcelona holds the 75th and Madrid the 246th position. Pamplona (Navarra) holds the 1st place and la Rioja, Basque Country (Euskadi) and Navarra are the regions (comunidades autónomas, in Spanish) with the best average results. On the other end of the scale you find Andalusia.

Catalonia as a total is in the middle, but not only Igualada ended up in the top-50. There you also find Banyoles (7), Ripoll (15), Olot (19), Sant Cugat del Vallès (22), Girona (23), Mollerussa (28), Barberà del Vallès (32) and Vic (41).

The analysis was based on data from 2001 and comprises all municipalities with more than 10.000 inhabitants for which the researchers have been able to compile data. Aspects like the socioeconomic conditions, social services, housing, transport, environment, labour market, health, culture, leisure, education and security have been compared using an internationally recognized model, starting from DEA (data envelopment analysis) and then adjusting with qualitative data as of VEA (value efficiency analysis).

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Personally, I assume that Igualada would not have reached the same relative position, had the comparison been made with current data. I do not have the 2001 unemployment statistics but assume that the situation was much better than what we see in 2011.

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Find here the original paper: Quality of life ranking of Spanish municipalities

Read more in Catalan: Anoia Diari

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