Spain

does everything the other way around in Spain, is losing a fortune… and plans to open more stores

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Costco has announced that it will continue opening warehouses in Spain despite accumulating 150 million euros in losses since its arrival in 2014, according to reports Digital Economy. The Spanish subsidiary recorded another 7.5 million losses in 2024, although its sales shot up to 607 million. The company already operates five centers (Seville, Getafe, Las Rozas, Sestao and Zaragoza) and is looking for new land. Its latest establishment in Zaragoza started with 15,000 members on the day of its inauguration. Why is it important. Costco represents the complete opposite of the model that dominates Spain: Mercadona triumphs with medium storesa reduced assortment and no membership. He doesn’t even have his own card. Costco is committed to large stores of more than 15,000 square meters, buying in bulk and charging a membership fee. It is the clash between two philosophies: the Spanish one that lives in your neighborhood and offers small, domestic formats, versus the American one of “pay 36 euros a year and get 24 rolls of toilet paper.” The strategy. Costco is playing the game Amazon played for two decades: lose money in a controlled way while it grows and build market share. Its 750,000 members (15% more than in 2023) and constant sales growth suggest that the model is finding its place. The company earned 11.5 million just from membership fees in 2024. Each new center comes with a gas station and Kirkland’s own brand products. Its average salary of 24,044 euros is above the sector. The contrast. Where Mercadona has immediate success, Costco has sustained losses. Where Mercadona optimizes margins (3.88% net profitin an upward trend), Costco optimizes volume and loyalty. Where Mercadona dominates with a 28% national share, Costco is building small niches. Yes, but. The bet has obvious risks. Costco needs critical mass for its model to work, and Spain is not the United States. Spanish purchasing habits favor proximity over volume, and competition in large stores – dominated by the French – is fierce. In fact, the hypermarket is going down in favor of the supermarket. We no longer make shopping a three-hour ritual on Saturday, but instead take advantage of empty spaces to make small purchases any day. And now what. Costco maintains that 2025 will bring more investment and land prospecting. The key will be if it manages to replicate in Spain what it achieved in other markets: convert initial losses into long-term leadership. It took Amazon twenty years to become profitable. Costco has been in our country for ten years and continues to invest. In Xataka | Spain has become a country addicted to something that a few years ago enjoyed little prestige: white label. Featured image | Marcus Reubenstein

Spain has an antidote to mental and emotional exhaustion: the nap

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In Spain, the tradition of the siesta has long been a cultural habit. However, today science claims it as a valuable resource to combat mental and emotional exhaustion. Different studies show that a well-planned nap not only helps you regain energy, but also improves cognitive functions and mood, something especially useful in times when stress and fatigue are the order of the day. Therefore, napping is an effective strategy to maintain active and balanced mind throughout the day. A mental reset called a nap The importance of the nap lies in its ability to refresh the brain and body, allowing people to face their daily tasks with better spirits and concentration, as highlighted a study from the University of Coruña. A quality nap increases energy, alertness and relaxation after rest. Improves concentration, memory and logical reasoning, promoting better performance in activities that require attention and mental speed. Besides, helps stabilize moodreduces impulsivity and makes it easier to calmly handle the frustrating tasks that often appear during the day. The scientific evidence indicate that even very short naps of just six minutes can be effective in improving sleep. processing of ideaswhile longer naps help consolidate long-term memories. For the nap to be effective, its ideal duration this between 15 and 30 minutesenough time for the brain to recover its capacity, but without entering phases of deep sleep that could cause drowsiness when waking up. Likewise, the best time to take a nap is between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., a time that coincides with a natural drop in energy during the day. If the nap lasts too long or takes place after three in the afternoon, it can negatively affect nighttime sleep, generating insomnia or a phenomenon known as “sleep inertia“, which consists of a feeling of drowsiness and difficulty reactivating after rest. Additionally, if naps become frequent and long without any noticeable improvement in performance when you wake up, it could be indicative of a sleep disorder underlying that should be evaluated by a professional. The nap is a break, not a substitute It is essential to clarify that the nap should in no case replace the need to sleep between seven and nine hours a nightsince this night rest is essential to maintain good general health and ensure efficient recovery, something that is only achieved when the brain reaches certain phases of sleep. “Sleeping well is much more than the time you spend in bed. The first is the number of hours you sleep. The second is the quality of sleep: having restful, uninterrupted sleep. The last is a regular sleep schedule,” assures Dr. Marishka Brown, sleep expert at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Not all people experience the same benefits of nap; The effects may vary depending on individual factors such as lifestyle and health. When you rely too much on long naps to compensate for fatigue, could be a symptom of health problems that require medical attention. In fact, some studies indicate that prolonged naps they associate in certain cases with metabolic problems such as obesity, although a direct causality has not been confirmed, but rather other factors related to lifestyle intervene. In Xataka | Sleeping in 90-minute cycles seemed like a magical solution to wake up like a rose: science doesn’t think the same Image | Pexels (Kaboompics.com)

Spain is rapidly stopping consuming it and no one has convincing explanations

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There was a time when many things could be missing from the tables of Spanish homes, but never bread. Never that. The bar was an essential part of the diet, one of its pillars, so firm that it even ended up leaving a mark in the proverb. Things have changed and now it is increasingly difficult to find bread in homes at meal time. And for example, a button: its per capita consumption (at least domestic) has collapsed in the last decade. The big question is… Why? Less bread at home. On Spanish tables and cupboards it is increasingly difficult to find loaves of bread. Although for a long time they were one of the pillars of nutrition (so much so that it has crept into popular proverbs), households seem to be turning their backs on them little by little. And no one really knows why. The last reminder of the extent to which we have lost interest in bread was left yesterday by the EfeAgro agency in a chronicle which starts with a revealing fact: on average a Spaniard consumes 25% less today than just a decade ago. Has consumption dropped that much? To answer that question, it is good to take a look at the data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. To be more precise to the figures of your consumption panelin which they detail “the food consumption data in Spanish households.” The nuance is important because its results basically show domestic behavior, purchases and consumption that are made within the home, not in the extradomestic channel. When the data on bread is analyzed, the reading is clear: today we consume less (much less) than a few decades ago. And as a figure always says more than a long explanation, here is a table with the evolution of demand. The data show annual per capita consumption measured in kg, although one detail must be clarified: the concept “bread” has remained unchanged in the historical series, but not its different classifications, which have changed, combining concepts such as “fresh bread”, “unpackaged” or “industrial bread” and “packaged”. Bread (total) fresh bread industrial bread 1990 56.4 52.9 3.5 2000 50.1 46.4 3.7 2010 36.3 30.8 5.5 2020 32.8 26 6.8 2024 27.4 21.5 5.9 looking back. The drop is even more pronounced if we broaden the focus and look at how Spaniards behaved in the 60s and 70s. Although the calculation criteria may have varied, the data from the Ministry of Agriculture show that in 1964 the “consumption of bread-making cereals in Spain” was around 92.5 kg per inhabitant per year. In the 70s that average was already 76.6 kg. He latest yearbook published by the Government, with data at the end of 2024, show that total per capita consumption of bread fell in the country by 0.2% compared to the previous year, although this decrease was not generalized: consumption of normal fresh bread ‘punctured’, while demand for whole grain, unsalted and industrial bread grew. Is it all negative data? No. Recently the Ministry of Food published a report with data from the year between August 2024 and July 2025 showing that bread purchases have generally increased by 3.9% during that period, leaving annual per capita consumption at 27.8 kilos. It remains significantly below the 34.9kg 2015, but it still represents an increase. Bread can also boast of having an almost absolute level of penetration in Spanish homes, reaching more than 99.8%, and generates a business of billions of euros. To be more precise, the data accumulated between August 2024 and July 2025 speak of 3.4 billion. Searching for the causes. The big question at this point is… Why do we consume less bread at home today than a few decades ago? EfeAgro remembers that in the last ten years its price has become more expensive almost 29%although the CPI data for September show that at least in the last year it remained below the general price index: 1.2% compared to the global 3%. The drop in consumption seems to respond more to changes in consumption habits: a greater availability of alternatives to bread, a more varied diet, a increase in consumption in places outside the home… “There has been a downward trend for years in Spain, it must be taken into account that when societies become more prosperous, consumption is reduced and other sources begin to be used”, explained already 2022 to The Spanish Jorge de Saja, from the Spanish Association of the Bakery, Pastry and Pastry Industry. Another key point from the sector is the increase in more satiating variants (such as whole wheat). “Don’t eat bread”. There are those who provide another explanation for the drop in bread consumption: “The perception that it is a food that can make you fat,” they regret from Asemac. Ángeles Carbajal Azcona, from the Department of Nutrition at the Complutense University of Madrid, also remembered it in 2016 in an article in which, citing other authors, I remembered that the “dietary advice” of some specialists to lose weight is: “Don’t eat bread.” “Epidemiological studies that try to look at the relationship between bread consumption and body weight usually see that people who consume bread more frequently have a higher risk of obesity, diabetes and weight gain,” he clarified in 2024. Jordi Salas-Salvadóprofessor, a The Country. “The problem is that these studies are done with current bread, which is not the same as traditional bread, with sourdough and long fermentation: bread has a high glycemic index, but artisanal bread has more fermentation process and that makes the glycemic index lower.” Image | Diana Krotova In Xataka | “We are the glitch in the Matrix of food”: the Madrid bakery whose reinvention of bread has gotten out of hand

How to know which internet operator comes to your home with this website of the Government of Spain

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When you are going to hire or carry out fiber portability, one of the first doubts is always know which operators come to your house. Because not everyone always arrives, and today we are going to propose a method to check this that is faster than putting your address on each operator’s website. This is a map created by the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service, in which you can search for any property in Spain, and see which operators offer service there. The page also allows you to see mobile coverage that is in each area of ​​the country. Look for fiber coverage on your farm The first thing you have to do is enter this Ministry website. In it, in the section of Maps you can see there is one for Fixed Broadband Services. The map is from 2024, which is the last time the data was updated, but over time it should continue to be updated. Here, click on the button Visualize of this map. This will open the map page, which you can also go to directly from this link. In it, after accepting the terms, you will see a map of Spain in which you can go zooming to find your house. You will see that the farms appear painted in colors, and these depend on the speed you reach each of them, as the legend on the map says. Once you find your property, click on it. This will open the information screen for your plot, where you will have the maximum descent speed indicated and the list of operators that provide service. Here, keep in mind that there are small operators that use the fiber lines of the big ones. In this Xataka Móvil article you can see what coverage each of the operators uses so you know which ones you can use. Finally, remember that That website also has a section Wirelesswhere you can see the speeds of the mobile connection in each point of Spain. In Xataka Basics | How many days do you have to cancel your fiber optic contract and what penalties may there be?

Europe looks to Spain to understand the agriculture of the future

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In just a decade, has grown by 3,000% and has generated more than 200,000 direct and indirect jobs throughout Spain. We are talking about pistachio: the ‘green gold’ that, despite initial skepticism, has radically changed hectares and hectares of the heart of the country. But we have known all this for years. What we did not know is that this agricultural boom was going to lead to an entire agrotechnological revolution. The epicenter of “pistachotech”. With 80% of the Spanish pistachio, Castilla-La Mancha has taken a step further to become the European epicenter of this “pistachio technological wave”: from “laboratory” rootstocks and new less common varieties to drones, precision irrigation and sterile insect programs. However, that is not the most interesting thing. As the Nobel Prize winners recently reminded us, what is interesting about this technological boom is the cultural change towards an innovative agricultural environment. But let’s go in parts. What is really happening in Castilla La Mancha? As explained in Enclave ODSAccording to Ángel Minaya (director of Agróptimum), the ultimate idea is to “control the entire process from the origin: the seed, the tree, the management and, subsequently, the industry.” This has led a group of researchers, businessmen and producers to start – often separately – an authentic revolution that goes from genetics to industrial organization. Let’s talk about the seed… This has been one of the first battles, for years California has led the creation of varieties with vigor and high tolerance to pests, salinities and low temperatures. And places like Cuenca have been key in its widespread adoption. They are true all-rounders that also reduce harvesting (alternation of crops) and improve harvesting performance than traditional varieties. They produce more, in a more stable way and are collected with fewer resources. …but it’s not just a seed thing. The truth is that, even having the best seed in the world, the genetic approach is not enough. And it is even less so in areas like Spain where water tensions and the pressure of desertification processes are the order of the day. Therefore, beyond grafts and varieties, precision irrigation and nutrition, computerized phenology, drones and their new remote sensing systems and the mechanization of harvesting have a central role in pushing the countryside towards a techno-digital era that has not quite come to fruition. Until now. And the best example of this is the speed with which the Spanish countryside is considering putting into practice sterile insect techniques that, although they are not yet fully necessary due to the youth of the plantations, are the gold standard of pest management. Good news. After all, the pistachio depends to open and close the harvest window properly and, above all, to process the harvest quickly. Without an extensive technical and industrial infrastructure, it is an almost impossible mission. An ecosystem in full growth. In a context in which agriculture needs massive amounts of genetic engineering, automation and data in real time, the configuration of a high-tech hub in the heart of Castilla La Mancha is excellent news. It not only seems an excellent tool to establish population and develop Empty Spain, but it is beginning to be configured as the great opportunity for the Spanish agricultural industry to reinvent yourself. Image | Christopher Burns | Christopher Balz In Xataka | The best pistachio, the one from Madrid: this is how the capital of Spain wants to become the capital of nuts

Spain has more and more problems with the drought and criminal networks have begun to realize it

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This story begins with a civil guard couple in civilian clothes chasing a tanker truck. They have been following trucks for months, they have checked thousands of livestock farms and, finally, they are about to find something. With 50 million liters of something. The initial track. More than a hundred residents of a district of Lorca denounced last year that there was an entire network selling water tanks to supply agricultural operations. It is nothing new: the Civil Guard has numerous investigations underway into the inspection and control of water use. Therefore, SEPRONA started to investigate the matter. And what have they found? The surveillance device located the tanker truck filling point: it was a well without authorizations for use and without a volumetric counter or any other type of measuring instrument. It seemed difficult to know the number of liters extracted. However, as the company pretended to be legitimate, the Civil Guard has been able to document that, during the last 18 months, 56 million liters of water had been sold for a value of at least 275,000 euros. This is only in the last 18 months: the armed institute believes that the illegal use of the well may have lasted several decades. Just one case out of a million. Over the last few years We have been talking about dozens of people investigated, detained and convicted due to illegal irrigation: in 2023 alone, hundreds of millions of cubic meters of water have been extracted illegally. The problem is real: so real that the Malaga water company has even hired private detectives to monitor employees, suppliers and customers. However, the key to this is not what has already happened. The key is what is going to happen. The list of threats is enormous. Climate change, overexploitation of aquifers, intensive agriculture, inadequate water management, forest fires, deforestation and population growth… Spain has a problem with water and that problem is not going to stop growing and growing. In this context, robberies are going to become more frequent and common. And that’s saying a lot: according to WWFthere are more than 500,000 illegal wells. But no one can be surprised. After all, there is a high financial incentive and relatively low penalties. Most cases they end, in fact, in fines and that is an excellent breeding ground for a huge problem. Image | VD Photography | Elentir In Xataka | Spain is facing a brutal drought and there are farmers watering avocados irregularly. A prosecutor wants it to be a crime

Spain and France warned of a failure in Europe’s drone wall. Now the plan includes lasers and civilians with rifles

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The drone raids Russians on the european airspace have turned the sky of the continent into a new frontier of hybrid warfare. In a few weeks, these devices have forced the closure of airports, putting the air forces on alert from NATO and reopened a debate that Europe thought distant: how to defend yourself of a cheap, difficult to track and increasingly sophisticated enemy. Then we heard the idea for the first time of the “drone wall”and now it’s starting to take an unexpected shape. The invisible threat. The incidents in PolandDenmark and Germany, where drones of unknown origin flew over military bases and civilian areas before disappearing, have accelerated the creation of an unprecedented defense device. Allies seek to protect the population and its critical infrastructure while balance the answer immediate with the development of a long-term architecture. This is how the idea of ​​raising an antidrone walla technological network that combines sensors, radars, jammers and low-cost weapons to detect, intercept and neutralize threats in a matter of seconds. The birth of the wall. The concept emerged many months ago, inspired by the lessons of Ukraine and the evidence that European armies They lacked adequate systems to counter the proliferation of drones. The Baltic countries, together with Poland and Finland, presented the initial proposal to the European Commission: a technological wall on NATO’s eastern flank, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, financed with border security funds and intended to monitor the skies against possible Russian incursions. But the wave of drones that crossed Polish airspace last September changed the scale of the project. Ursula von der Leyen proclaimed the need for a “wall” to protect all of Europe. What began as a regional idea became the embryo of a continental air defense network against unmanned systems, the so-called European Drone Defense Initiativeincluded in the new military readiness roadmap that the Commission will present this fall. Europe accelerates. Thus, while politics was debated over budgets and powers, the armies acted. Denmark installed Doppler radars in Copenhagen and at its base in Skrydstruphome of its F-16 and F-35, to detect suspicious movements. Sweden announced a investment of 370 million of dollars in interceptors, jammers and frequency sensors. Germany passed a law which allows police to shoot down drones that pose an imminent threat, and the United Kingdom deployed spy planes on twelve-hour missions over the Russian border. Defense manufacturers quickly joined the effort: Saab presented its Nimbrix missiledesigned specifically to take down swarms of drones, and the loke systema modular radar, machine gun and electronic warfare set created in just three months to respond quickly to the threat. And in an unexpected turn of events, the Danes have gone further than anyone else: they even accelerated the instructor training military with shotguns to shoot down drones at close range, an unusual measure that reflects the urgency with which Europe is trying to close a critical technological gap. You have to expand. The initial enthusiasm for the anti-drone wall soon found a political problem: Western and southern Europe felt excluded from an initiative that concentrated resources in the East. Countries like Spain, France or Italy they detected a problem and they warned that the threats are not limited to the Russian front, since drones can operate from any point in the territory. The Commission took note and proposed expand the plantransforming the “wall” into a pan-European network of sensors, jammers and weapons integrated under the same coordination framework. Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius admitted that the EU’s current capabilities are “very limited” and that it will be necessary to resort to Ukrainian experience, accumulated after almost four years of daily fighting against Russian swarms. The remakerenamed the European Drone Defense Initiative, seeks total coverage and proposes a double challenge: demonstrate that the Union can assume a real operational role in defense (traditionally the responsibility of States and NATO) and achieve consensus among twenty-seven countries with very different military priorities. Obstacles of a wall. But there are more obstacles. I told it in an extensive report this morning Reuters. The project faces a complex internal battle over who should lead it. Small and Eastern nations prefer that the Commission centralize coordination, while France and Germany (accustomed to directly managing their arms programs) they refuse to give in leadership. Berlin and Paris also fear that the Commission will end up assuming powers that traditionally belong to national sovereignty. At the same time, experts warn that the idea of ​​a wall can generate a false sense of security: No network, no matter how advanced, can guarantee the downing of all drones. The technical difficulties they are huge: Connecting radars, acoustic sensors, optical systems, interceptors and artificial intelligence software from different countries into a single mesh will require years of testing and billion-dollar investments. The challenge is to achieve a defense staggered and adaptable to a type of threat in constant mutation, where each enemy innovation requires an immediate response. Lessons from Ukraine. It we have counted other times. The war in Ukraine has taught Europeans a costly lesson: you cannot shoot down a 10,000 euro drone with a missile that costs a million. The sustainability of the combat depends on intermediate solutionsfrom interceptor drones that collide with enemies to automatic cannons and low-power laser systems. Rheinmetall, the German giant, defends the use of artillery as a more profitable option and has already received orders from Denmark, Hungary and Austria for its Skyranger mobile system. Emerging companies from the Baltic and Germany, such as Marduk Technologies or Alpine Eagle, have presented your own schemes multi-layer defensewhile Ukraine continues to serve as a testing ground: its operators adjust the speed and maneuverability of the interceptors almost in real time to face increasingly faster Russian versions. This constant evolution turns anti-drone defense into a living disciplineof countermeasure and countermeasure, where human experience and AI must coexist. The utopia of safe heaven. If you will, the future of the alleged European anti-drone wall depends now on three factors: … Read more

the history of the first radar in Spain

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Do you know how many people died in 2024 in traffic accidents? 1,154. An “unaffordable” figure, in the words of Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Minister of the Interior who gave the press conference in which the data was made public. In total, 14 more people died than in 2023 and the number has been growing slowly since 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic significantly reduced displacement. In the last decade, Spain moves on the border of the 1,000 deaths but it cannot continue to lower this figure. Now imagine multiplying that number by four. And more or less we will have the number of deaths recorded in 1964. That year, in Spain there were 3,803 deaths recorded on the road. But in addition, 82,953 people were injured of varying severity. In total, 79,494 accidents were recorded. Of these, it is estimated that 31.63% of drivers were traveling at a “dangerous speed,” according to the Accident Statistical Yearbook. The time had come to take action. And those measures brought the first traffic radar seen in Spain. This was the first radar It is no coincidence that the DGT speaks of 1964 as the key year that ended up opening the door to the radars in Spain. That year, they point out on their websitethe magazine Black and White explained what a “cinemometer” was, about which they said that “this new device records the number of vehicles that pass a certain place on a road and at the same time indicates the speed they are traveling at.” However, it would not be until 1968 when the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard saw a device that they must have felt had come from the sky. Until then, agents used a system… let’s call it precarious. Before radars existed, Civil Guard cars had a speedometer in the right headlight. The driver would then approach the offending car and keep pace. From the passenger side, a photograph was taken showing the speed at which the vehicle was traveling and the offending car. It was in 1968, however, when radars made an appearance. After the first tests, the agents began to mount the equipment in the cars. The ones chosen were the Renault 10 and the Seat 124 that the Civil Guard used daily but they had to carry a luggage rack to be able to transport the enormous devices. These consisted of a radio system that, using microwaves, was capable of estimating the speed at which a vehicle was moving. This acted together with another device, known as photocontrolwho was in charge of taking the photograph so that there was evidence of the offending vehicle. At the end of the day, the film rolls from the camera had to be sent to the Traffic Headquarters to be developed and, later, printed. The time of taking, the date and the speed at which the vehicle was being driven at that time were recorded in the photograph. The system was not very different from the current one therefore. The devices also had other problems. They could only be used on completely flat ground. If this was not the case, the calibration began to make errors. In addition, they were heavy to transport and, obviously, could only be used when stationary. It was something like having to install a fixed radar every day. That made the management of fines was especially cumbersome. Every day, the agents who had to perform these functions had to travel to the indicated place. Once there, all the data related to the control had to be entered by hand. With each change of road, the agent covered himself with a black curtain to prevent any photos from being obscured by their change. Six hours after keeping the radar in operation, the agent had to spend another two hours writing reports about what happened. They explain on the DGT website that since the number of these devices was minimal and there was very little knowledge about them, the Civil Guard had to send its agents to France or Germany to recycle their knowledge. Those first radars began to spread from Madrid and Barcelona and little by little, already in the 70stheir number was expanding. The margin for committing an infraction was low since the radars could not detect vehicles traveling above 150 km/h. In those days, only a handful of cars could exceed this speed. What was said in those moments? Little thing. Things from a country that was experiencing a dictatorship in those days, so the dissenting voices tended to zero… at least in the media. In fact, the arrival of these devices was praised, pointing out The Vanguard that, now, drivers had to circulate “as it should be”. Photo | DGT In Xataka | 74,000 fines and counting: the most voracious radar in all of Spain is located in a specific point in Madrid

This is how the money is distributed in the neighborhoods and municipalities of Spain

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On the streets of Spain, the standard of living can change radically from one apple to another. The environment that a person finds when leaving home, the parked vehicles, the diversity of stores or the simple appearance of the buildings tell part of a deeper and more complex story. Behind these everyday differences, the data reflects the extent to which geographic location reflects economic level and the well-being of its inhabitants. The published statistics This week by the Tax Agency they show a growing gap that crosses cities and neighborhoods, making it clear that wealth and poverty do not usually live in the same zip code. Where wealth is concentrated. The richest neighborhoods in Spain They are recorded in residential areas on the outskirts of the large urban centers of Madrid and Barcelona. La Moraleja (Alcobendas, Madrid) stands out for another year with 196,429 euros of average gross income, followed by Ciudalcampo (San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid) with 121,838 euros and Fuente del Fresno (also in San Sebastián de los Reyes) with 108,354 euros. Outside the capital, the Vallvidrera-Tibidabo i Les Planes neighborhood, on the eastern edge of Barcelona, ​​occupies fourth place with 107,513 euros. Without leaving the city of Barcelonathe neighborhoods of Muntaner (106,734 euros) and Pedralbes-Sarriá (104,963 euros) complete the list of the richest in Spain. We have to reduce several tens of thousands of euros in rent to find a neighborhood outside the scope of these two cities, until we reach the Valencian Massarrochos-Santa Bárbara, with an average gross income of 81,807 euros. The neighborhoods with the least income. The opposite extreme is represented by Torreblanca, in Seville, which according to records According to the Tax Agency, it was ranked as the area with the lowest average gross income in all of Spain during the year 2023, reaching only 11,354 euros annually. Despite this figure, the neighborhood itself improves slightly compared to previous years. However, the gap between the highest and lowest average income centers remains abysmal, standing at over 185,000 euros difference. Other neighborhoods with low income are Nou Alacant (Alicante, 16,868 euros), Cortijos de Marín (Roquetas de Mar, Almería, 17,210 euros), Carrús-Plaza Barcelona (Elche, 17,670 euros) and Ciudad Jardín (Alicante, 19,000 euros). Given these data, it is worth highlighting the enormous gap that exists between the neighborhoods with the highest and lowest incomesreaching a difference of up to 185,000 euros on average between La Moraleja and Torreblanca. Origin of wealth in the neighborhoods. The nature of wealth also changes depending on the neighborhood in which you live. For example, only 58.55% of the income of the residents of the richest neighborhoods comes from a salary, while 17.79% corresponds to capital returns, 10.68% is earned from economic activities and 11.53% comes from of capital gains. However, in lower-income neighborhoods there is a greater dependence on labor income direct and there is very little generation of passive or patrimonial income. The salary of the residents of these humble neighborhoods represents more than 75% of the total average annual income. In the case of Torreblanca, the poorest neighborhood in Spain, the weight of salaries in the total declared income reaches 75.18%. For its part, capital income barely represents 0.22%, economic activities 1.83% and capital gains only 0.47%. Wealth and poverty in the shadow of big cities. It is enough to open the focus a little more to discover that the municipalities with the highest average income are clearly concentrated in the communities of Madrid and Catalonia. Pozuelo de Alarcón, in Madrid, repeats as the richest municipality in Spain with an average income of 88,011 euros in 2023, 3.15% more than the previous year. They are followed by Boadilla del Monte (Madrid) with 70,869 euros and Sant Just Desvern, in Barcelona, ​​with 67,265 euros. In total, five Madrid and four Catalan municipalities appear among the top ten on this list. At the other extreme, the municipalities with the lowest incomes are located mainly in Andalusia and Extremadura. Benamargosa, in Malaga, is the poorest, with an average income of only 13,831 euros. It is followed by other Andalusian municipalities such as Guadahortuna and Colomera, both in Granada, with around 14,000 euros of average income. The difference between Pozuelo de Alarcón and Benamargosa is 74,180 euros, which, as we already saw in the breakdown of the neighborhoods, also shows great economic inequality between areas of the country. In Xataka | The list of the richest people in Spain in 2025: many changes in the figures, but not in the protagonists Image | Unsplash (Yzy Pop, John Fornander)

The most watched film in history on television is not a Hollywood success, but a classic from the most carpet-loving Spain

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You will have heard on more than one occasion that every time ‘Pretty Woman’ is broadcast on television, audiences skyrocket. Nowadays it is no longer so true: Telecinco broadcast it a couple of days ago and the result It wasn’t spectacular.. In any case, not even the film by Richard Gere and Julia Roberts has come to live up to what is the greatest milestone in television cinema: the most viewed film in history in Spain has nothing Hollywood about it. Neither cathete nor cathete. On January 14, 1992 (that is, with the private ones already at full capacity, but still unable to stand up to depending on the customs of the Spanish viewer), the broadcast on La 1 of ‘Cateto a port’ had an average audience of 10,078,000 viewers and a stratospheric share 60.5% (for comparison, the final of the last Copa del Rey, the most watched in years, it didn’t reach 50%and the daily program that exceeds 15% is rare). Tremendous landism. ‘Cateto a port’ is a 1970 Spanish comedy starring Alfredo Landa. In it, a simple young man, after multiple attempts to avoid military service in order to take care of his little brother, ends up joining the Navy, having to face multiple difficulties due to his lack of experience. The film uses simple humor for all audiences, contrasting the naive protagonist (the recruit Cañete, whose name will soon become iconic) and the highly regulated environment of the Navy. All seasoned, of course, with its mild military propaganda, showing the modernity and friendliness of the institutions. Why do you like ‘Cateto a port’? His conciliatory tone, so typical of the last years of the Franco dictatorship, guaranteed him notable box office success, and above all, as with other stars of the time such as Paco Martínez Soria, the favor of the public. Its comedy of manners with a very friendly tone makes ‘Cateto a port’ very digestible by audiences of all ages, just what brought ten million people to the television screen. The most aggressive landismo was yet to come, full of plots with Spanish boys chasing Swedish women among images of medium intensity eroticism. It would be inaugurated, precisely, that same 1970 with a film by the same director, ‘You will not desire the neighbor on the fifth floor’. Relative milestone. Of course, we are talking about an absolute record… since there have been measurements, something that started in Spain in 1986. In 1992, audiences had already atomized due to private ones, so it is possible to think that in the seventies and eighties, when the population’s primary entertainment was television, the audiences for other films (or even this one) could have been much larger. Before measuring with audiometers, The audience was measured through the General Media Study (EGM) since 1968, which used interviews to estimate consumption. Other successes. There are only four feature films registered that have exceeded 9 million on average: the humorous western by Clint Eastwood and Shirley McLaine ‘Two Mules and a Woman’, with 9,598,000; the tremendous ‘The Priest’s Son’ by Fernando Esteso, with 9,287,000 spectators; We were talking about ‘Pretty Woman’ and there it is, with 9,223,000 viewers; and finally, ‘Dirty Dancing’ with 9,110,000 viewers. Be careful, because they are all broadcasts from 1992 (with the exception of ‘Pretty Woman’, from 1994), which suggests that, despite the arrival of private broadcasts, there was a general increase in people watching television in the early nineties.

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