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Why Navarre is the region with the best quality of life in Spain

Whether it be education, health or overall happiness, this little-known autonomous community of Spain consistently ranks as the region with the best quality of life in the entire country.

Published: 4 September 2024 14:14 CEST
Updated: 7 September 2024 08:06 CEST
Why Navarre is the region with the best quality of life in Spain
Plaza del Castillo in Pamplona, Navarra's capital. Photo: David Vives/Unsplash

Navarra, or Navarre in English, is a relatively unknown and region of Spain, often overlooked by international holidaymakers.

Sandwiched between Aragón and the Basque Country, it has only around 660,000 inhabitants according to the latest population figures from Spain’s national statistics institute (INE).

It’s of course mostly known for its capital Pamplona and the famous San Fermín festival bull runs, but the wider region itself is something of a hidden gem with picturesque landscapes, excellent local gastronomy and its rich historical and cultural heritage, something recognised both nationally and internationally.

This is especially true when you consider that it’s officially the region of Spain with the highest quality of living in the entire country.

And this isn’t just a one off; since 2008 Navarre has consistently ranked as one of (if not) the best place to live in all of Spain, and it regularly takes first or second place in many of the metrics that make up the quality of life index. 

READ ALSO: What are the pros and cons of life in Spain’s Navarre region?

In recent years Navarra has ranked highest among all regions of Spain for quality of life and around 4 points higher than the national average.

This is further backed up by the INE’s latest Quality of Life Indicator survey that ranks regions along various socioeconomic criteria.

The nine areas analysed are overall living conditions (where Navarre ranked 3rd), work and professional life (6th), health (2nd), education (2nd), leisure and social relations (1st), physical and personal security (9th), governance and basic rights (8th), surroundings and environment (1st) and general life experience (1st). 

After Navarra, La Rioja and Aragón were found to have the highest levels of quality of life overall. Navarre particularly stood out as it was the region that most often ranked in the top three in the different criteria – something it did on six occasions.

Education

Navarra ranked second overall in terms of education quality, behind only the neighbouring Basque Country. It’s the region with the most people aged 25 to 64 who have received some sort of training or education in the last month, has the second highest percentage of young people (18-24 years old) with higher levels of studies and the lowest early drop-out rate.

It also came third in terms of the adult population with a higher level of studies.

Work 

Navarra ranked sixth among the 17 regions of Spain for overall work and professional life and stands out as one of the regions with the lowest percentage of low salaries among its workers. Navarra came second overall in terms of the highest median income and the highest satisfaction with individual household economic situation.

It also has low rates of unemployment and long-term unemployment compared to other regions of Spain. Of the eight job criteria analysed by the INE, Navarra was above the national average in six of them.

According to INE figures, Navarre has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Spain (9.6 percent per 2023 figures).

Crime and security

Navarra is also generally very safe. There were only 3 murders in the region in 2022 (the last year the INE took data for) however the overall crime rate did rise taking it to 50 crimes per 1,000 inhabitants, the 5th highest in Spain.

In terms of physical and personal safety, Navarra was about average for Spain, coming in 9th position.

The picturesque village of Eugui in Navarra. Photo: Iñigo Goyache/Unsplash
 

Health

People in Navarra are healthier than your average Spaniard.

As far as general life experience is concerned, Navarre leads the national ranking in terms of overall life satisfaction.

It also ranked as the second best region for self-perceived health, for having the second highest life expectancy and for having the lowest percentage of daily smokers.

Environment and leisure

Navarra is known for its lush and green landscapes, and in terms of environment and leisure options Navarra was unsurprisingly the region with the highest satisfaction with green areas and the surroundings.

It’s also clean and has the second lowest concentration of polluting particles in the air.

Housing and poverty

According to the INE report, Navarra is the region with the lowest percentage of its population at risk of relative poverty and the highest satisfaction with housing.

As it’s in northern Spain, however, rents and property prices are higher than elsewhere in the country on average.

READ ALSO: Are people from Navarre more Basque than Spanish? 

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EXPLAINED: How Spain’s new Social Security app works

Whether you're self-employed, an artist, a student or a domestic worker, Spain's new social security app aims to simplify and streamline bureaucratic processes you might need to do when it comes to managing your working life and pension.

Published: 17 September 2024 11:04 CEST
EXPLAINED: How Spain's new Social Security app works

Spain’s Social Security Ministry has launched a new free mobile app aimed at simplifying and synchronising tax, pension and working life procedures, allowing you to better access records and update information.

The app is specifically aimed at easing the bureaucratic burden on the self-employed, domestic workers, artists and young people studying or doing work experience.

Spain’s Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, presented the app this week, stating that it represents “a great step forward for citizens to have a closer and more fluid relationship with Social Security.

Through this application, personal data can be updated and verified; detailed information on contribution bases can be accessed and your Work Life report can be easily downloaded, among many other services.”

In Spain, your ‘Working Life report’ is known as el informe de vida laboral. According to the Social Security website, it is “a document that contains information on all the periods contributed by the worker to the Spanish Social Security system.” In other words, all the information on your entire employment history in Spain.

READ ALSO: How to check how long you have left to get a pension in Spain

The app essentially moves over the various processes usually done on the Social Security portal or in Spain’s social security offices so users can receive a more personalised service including tailored alerts and the ability to download documents to their mobile phones in offline mode.

It also allows users to easily check the details of their working life including for who and for how long they’ve worked somewhere, the type of contract they have, the working day or the relevant collective bargaining agreement, as well as information on contribution bases and how much they are owed in the event of sick leave and for calculating your pension.

How do I access and use the app?

First you’ll need to download the app from the Google Play or Apple App store. Once you’ve downloaded it to your phone, there are three ways to log-in in and register:

  • Permanent Cl@ve
  • Digital certificate (Android only)
  • SMS

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Once registered and logged in, push notifications can be turned on as well as a biometric access — either fingerprint or facial recognition.

Once this has been done, you can access your personal information, whether it be working or pension matters, and all the normal procedures you’d previously do via the portal can be carried out and all this information can be downloaded in files.

What can you do with the app?

As mentioned earlier, the new app basically aims to streamline the processes you’d normally do via the Social Security Ministry portal or in person.

This includes checking your social security number or requesting one, consulting your tax contribution bases and employment history, updating your personal details, or managing tasks for the self-employed, domestic workers artists or young people doing work experience, such as registering or deregistering as economically active and downloading supporting documents.

READ ALSO: How to de-register as self-employed in Spain

Focus on young people, freelancers, artists and domestic employment

The application offers four different profiles to use the app: self-employed, domestic employment (for both employees and employers), artists and trainees.

The autónomo profile allows you to access all the information and procedures available if you are registered or are about to start self-employment, including registration and de-registration, modifying your contribution base, consulting tax receipts, and estimating your contributions according to your income, among other things.

In the domestic employment section, whether you yourself work domestically or are going to hire someone to work at home, you can consult all the necessary information such as calculating the contributions to be paid, registering and de-registering, updating the salary information and the working hours of the employee, or consulting payslips issued.

READ ALSO: The rules for hiring a domestic worker in Spain

For artists, you can manage your inactivity, request a refund of income from contribution bases or deregister from the working artists’ register.

For students doing internships or work experience (alumnos en prácticas in Spanish) the app is useful for both those about to start their internships and for those who’ve already started them, with access to their personal profile, a guide to resolve doubts, information to find out about the benefits of pensions contributions and they can carry out procedures such as requesting the social security number, downloading the Work Life Report and consulting contribution bases.

READ ALSO: How self-employed workers in Spain can get a better pension

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