‘The pandemic makes things worse’ Quality of life across cities in Spain plummeted following COVID-19 outbreak

THE QUALITY of life in Valencia has plummeted in the last year amid coronavirus chaos. 

The city has dropped places in a national league table reviewing the quality of life in 15 spots across Spain. 

The Spanish Consumers’ and Users’ Organisation (OCU) published a survey this month, after quizzing residents on issues such as mobility, safety, healthcare, sport and education. 

They asked participants to review quality of life at four different stages: 2015, 2018, early 2020 and during the pandemic. 

All 15 cities saw standards of living, from sport and culture to health and education, plummet as Spain struggled to grapple with the spread of COVID-19. 

From 2015 to the start of 2020, Valencia maintained a healthy rating of 75 or above out of 80. 

But by the end of 2020 Valencia scraped by with a slightly above average ranking of 65 – coming in at number seven on the list. 

Although Valencia does not score badly in any specific areas, people who live there are generally less satisfied than residents in Vigo (Galicia), Zaragoza, Bilbao, Valladolid (Castilla y Leon), and Cordoba and Malaga (Andalucia), in that order.

Valencia draws in overall satisfaction with Gijon (Asturias), and is followed by Alicante, Sevilla (Andalucia), Las Palmas (Canary Islands), Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona and Madrid.

Meanwhile the Galician city of Vigo was rated highest, with a global quality of life score of 70. 

Experts behind the survey said: “The pandemic makes things worse.

“We asked respondents to evaluate the overall quality of life in their city at the time of the survey and at different periods in recent years: in 2015, 2018, early 2020. 

“As we can see in the graph, the situation before the coronavirus was to some extent stable in many cities, although upward trends are observed, improvements in the situation in Zaragoza, Valladolid or Seville, while Palma, Barcelona and Madrid already showed a previous downward trend.

“However, the coronavirus crisis represents a turning point, causing the perceived quality of life to drop dramatically in all cities, something very evident in Palma and Seville where the results plummet.” 

You can read the full table HERE.

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