Barcelona Municipal Services Satisfaction Barometer: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

59% of the residents of the city of Barcelona is satisfied with municipal public services, while 27% are dissatisfied, data significantly worse than those corresponding to the national average. These are data from the V Public Services Satisfaction Barometer, promoted by the Urban Services Observatory (OSUR).

The water supply and garbage collection services are the only ones that reach the broad approval of the people of Barcelona with 84% and 63% satisfied. Street cleaning remains the worst valued service, with 34% satisfied, and 41% dissatisfied.

These results place Barcelona in 26th place in the comparison of the 30 most populous cities in Spain.

In a detailed analysis of each service, the water supply continues to be the municipal public service that receives the most positive assessments, with 84% satisfaction, 10% more than in 2022, and 3 points above the national average. The most appreciated aspects are good operational management (pressure, continuity of service, operation of the meter).

Regarding the collection of garbage and waste, it obtains second place with 63% satisfaction, also 10 percentage points above 2022.

The most valued aspects are the container service for selective collection and the frequency of the garbage collection service. In both services, the very low use of customer service services stands out.

The data shows that public transport has recovered 50% of satisfaction from 46% in 2022. However, citizen dissatisfaction with the fluidity of vehicle traffic increases, reducing satisfaction to 21% and increasing dissatisfaction to 45%. . It slightly improves the perception of the metro and bus service, except for the price.

The care of parks and gardens and the conservation of public spaces and sports facilities receives the approval of 48%, 1% less than in 2022, but well below the Spanish average, which has been improving after the pandemic. All aspects are valued around 50%, with the presence of maintenance personnel in parks and public spaces as the best perceived item and with the care of green areas as the least appreciated with only 39% satisfied and 23% of dissatisfied.

The worst valued service by far is street cleaning: with 32% satisfaction, which returns to its worst data, discontent also increases, going from 39% to 41%. The people of Barcelona complain, with 47% of dissatisfied users, about the cleaning of pet excrement, and with 39% dissatisfied with the cleanliness of the streets in their neighbourhood. The most valued aspect is the endowment and equipment for the provision of the street cleaning service (trucks, equipment, personnel), with 54% of favorable opinions.

For Lorenzo Dávila, general director of OSUR, “in Barcelona, ​​with the exception of the good grades of the water supply and garbage collection, the rest of the services do not maintain the standards of a large city. The transport service continues to sink in the evaluation of the people of Barcelona due to municipal policies that induce traffic congestion, punishing public transport that receives the best specific score and saves the index (50%). Street cleaning and the care of parks and gardens, as well as the conservation of public spaces and sports facilities, are perceived by the people of Barcelona with uneasiness, and far from the standards reached by the Spanish Olympic city”.

“Once again, the supply of water surpasses itself and reaches a remarkable score (84%), in a year in which all the cities have improved their grades, but in Barcelona only water and garbage have done so significantly” .

The results of this fifth edition of the Barometer are the result of a survey carried out by ODC among 5,210 people between April 12 and May 12, 2023. The study aims to reflect the opinion of citizens about their public services in the 30 most populated municipalities in the country: Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, Malaga, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Bilbao, Alicante, Córdoba, Valladolid, Vigo, Gijón, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Vitoria, A Coruña, Granada, Elche, Oviedo, Terrassa, Badalona, ​​Cartagena, Jerez de la Frontera, Sabadell, Móstoles, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Pamplona and Alcalá of Henares.