Alex Trelinski
FOUR Andalucian towns feature in a Top 10 list of Spain’s poorest municipalities with populations of 50,000 and over.
The study though is somewhat reflective as it reviews tax returns from 2017 and 2018.
The most impoverished town in the country was El Ejido in Almeria province with an annual average income of €13,066 some six years ago.
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The three other featured Andalucian municipalities are Sanlucar de Barrameda in Cadiz, Utrera in Sevilla and Motril in Granada.
The figures have been compiled by the Foundation for Applied Economics Studies(Fedea).
Fedea analysed the average personal income of 1,207 towns and cities and income tax returns in 2017 and 2018, which includes three Alicante province cities and two Gran Canaria municipalities.
The top 10 list is:
- El Ejido (Almeria) – €13,066
- Sanlucar de Barrameda (Cadiz) – €13,587
- Santa Lucía de Tirajana (Gran Canaria) – €14,246
- Arona (Gran Canaria) – €14,275
- Elda (Alicante) – €14,314
- Lorca (Murcia) – €14,626
- Torrevieja (Alicante) – €15.041
- Orihuela (Alicante) – €15,813
- Utrera (Sevilla) – €15,832
- Motril (Granada) – €15,942
Madrid, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca lead the ranking of the richest cities in Spain, followed by Valencia and Sevilla.
The sixth and seventh places are occupied by Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Zaragoza, followed by Murcia and Malaga.
The average income per taxpayer increased by more than 3% in all these cities with the exception of Madrid (3.64%), Zaragoza (1.67%), Murcia (1%) and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (0.80%).
However, Fedea shows a less equitable distribution of income in large Spanish cities.
The largest increases in this inequality occurred in Sevilla (6.44%), followed by Barcelona (3.71%), Murcia (3.60%), Zaragoza (3.20%) and Valencia (3.13%).
