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Named: Spain's most expensive city

Alex Dunham
Alex Dunham - [email protected]
Named: Spain's most expensive city
This city is pricier than Spain’s two ‘capital’ cities: Madrid and Barcelona. Photo: Urko Dorronsoro/Flickr

A Basque city has been named the most expensive city in Spain with living costs nearly a third higher than the national average, a price comparison study reveals.

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San Sebastián, or Donostia as it is called in the Basque Country, is surprisingly pricier than Spain’s two ‘capital’ cities: Madrid and Barcelona.

Price comparison website Kelisto.com found the classy Basque city to be 29.3 percent more expensive than the average taken from 50 provincial capitals across Spain.

Madrid came in second (+28.7 percent), Barcelona third (+26.2 percent) and the Catalan city of Tarragona was fourth (+18.2 percent).

The study’s researchers used five categories to reach their conclusions:

-          Property prices (buying and renting)

-          Taxes (real estate tax, traffic charges, council rates)

-          Public and private transport costs (single and 10 trip tickets, petrol, taxi rates)

-          Shopping (groceries)

-          Entertainment (Cinema prices and meal for two)

On the other side of the chart are Spain’s North African exclave of Ceuta (-27.7 percent), Teruel in Aragon (-15.2 percent) and Palencia in Castile and Leon (-14.4 percent); the country’s three cheapest cities.

SEE ALSO: Spain's most expensive streets

According to a study by employment agency Adecco, the three regions where Spain’s most expensive cities are located are also those with the highest salaries.

Workers in the Basque Country earn a monthly average of €1957 post-tax, followed by Madrid with €1,890 and Catalonia with €1755.

The Canary Islands and Extremadura are the two lowest earning regions of Spain’s, both with average monthly wages below €1,400.

Spain’s minimum wage is the equivalent of €21.51 per calendar day and equates to a full-time salary of €9,034.20 annually.

The average salary across the country is just under €23,000 a year, Spain's stats office the INE said in late June.

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