The three great Spanish cities, Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, suspend with a grade of “insufficient” the exam on economic freedom carried out annually by the Foundation for the Advancement of Liberty, which places Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Alicante and Almería in the lead with a “satisfactory” note.
Specific, of the 50 cities analyzed, Madrid is in position 44, Valencia in 43, Barcelona in 42, all three with “insufficient”; Seville at 38 with “acceptable” and Zaragoza at 28 and Malaga at 23 with “moderate”.
For his part, Vitoria is located in the middle of the tableoccupying position 27.
The Index of Economic Freedom of Spanish Cities (ILECE) processes 800 variables, corresponding to 16 basic indicators, in each of the fifty municipalities with the largest population in the entire country, yielding four partials for the areas of economic performance, magnitude of the workforce, economic interventionism and municipal fiscal pressure.
Among its conclusions, the study indicates that “political color has little influence on the degree of economic freedom”, although it notes in some indicators, such as the tendency to remunicipalize services or the incontinence of spending, contracting or subsidies, “greater interventionism by left-wing political formations”.
It also confirms that in 2023 the improvement trend of previous years is maintained, that the differential between the best and worst rated cities is reduced, that the size of the cities presents a “negative correlation” with their degree of economic freedom and that, instead, there is no connection between the degree of municipal economic freedom and the economic level or the degree of fiscal competitiveness of its community.
The general secretary of this liberal foundation and co-author of the study, Juan Pina, considers that “municipal public policies have an ever-greater effect on the general economic freedom of companies and individuals, attracting or expelling both individual professionals and economic activity“.
The following table contains the list of cities ordered by score (out of 100) and rating of economic freedom:
SATISFACTORY
1 Santa Cruz de Tenerife 68.45
2 Alicante 65,42
3 Almeria 65.05
MODERATE
4 Vigo 64,39
5 Castellón/Castellón 63.86
6 Fuenlabrada 63.86
7 San Cristobal de la Laguna 63.84
8 Valladolid 62,51
9 Elche/Elx 62.09
10 Cartagena 61,74
11 Badajoz 61.73
12 Albacete 61.56
13 Oviedo 61,05
14 Pamplona 60,92
15 Alcala de Henares 60.40
16 A Coruña 60.31
17 L’Hospitalet de Llobregat 59.85
18 Córdoba 59,56
19 Getafe 59.10
20 Mostoles 58.68
21 Gijon 58.56
22 Sabadell 58.32
23 Málaga 58,13
24 Burgos 57,27
25 Leganes 57.14
26 Santander 56,56
27 Vitoria/Gasteiz 56.50
28 Zaragoza 56,34
29 Murcia 56,23
30 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 56.02
31 Alcorcon 55.87
32 Salamanca 55,22
ACCEPTABLE
33 Badalona 54.73
34 Tarragona 54.60
35 Bilbao 54,54
36 Terrace 54.03
37 Palma 53,84
38 Sevilla 53,06
39 Huelva 51.81
40 Logrono 51.27
41 Donostia/San Sebastian 50.33
INSUFFICIENT
42 Barcelona 49,89
43 Valencia 49,80
44 Madrid 49,48
45 Speak 48.75
46 Two Sisters 48.44
47 Lleida 47.82
48 Granada 47,46
DEFECTIVE
49 Jerez de la Frontera 44.19
50 Marbella 43,91
