La Moraleja tops Spain's richest postal codes at 235,556 euros, Torreblanca lowest at 11,560

Top postal codes

Spain's Tax Agency published its 2024 income statistics by postal code on Thursday 8 October, covering declarants in the largest municipalities. La Moraleja, a district of Alcobendas in Madrid, recorded an average gross income of 235,556 euros per taxpayer, up from 196,429 euros in 2023, a rise of 20% according to El País. Ciudalcampo (145,046 euros) and Fuente del Fresno (139,369 euros), both in San Sebastián de los Reyes, follow in second and third place. According to El País, 13 postal codes exceed 100,000 euros, excluding the Basque Country and Navarre, which have their own tax systems. El Mundo reports that eight of those 13 are in the Community of Madrid, or 61.5% of the list, while Barcelona has three, A Coruña one and Valencia one. El Mundo also stresses that these figures are average gross income per tax return, not the average salary of the people who live there.

The bottom of the table

Torreblanca in Seville has the lowest average, at 11,560 euros, up from 11,354 euros in 2023. Nou Alacant in Alicante registers 17,506 euros, Cortijos de Marín in Roquetas de Mar (Almería) 17,632 euros, and Carrús-Plaza Barcelona in Elche 18,207 euros. Sector Sur-Polígono del Guadalquivir in Córdoba (19,711 euros) and Ciudad Jardín in Alicante (19,813 euros) complete the group below 20,000 euros. Inside Madrid city, Entrevías-Puente de Vallecas has the lowest average at 23,497 euros, against 47,027 euros for the capital as a whole, which ABC reports is 7.7% higher than the year before. El País puts the gap between La Moraleja and Torreblanca at close to 224,000 euros, while eldiario.es cites a gap of more than 185,000 euros between the highest and lowest neighbourhoods in its own comparison.

Regional picture

La Razón's regional breakdown gives a Spain-wide average of 33,239 euros gross per declarant. The Community of Madrid leads at 43,674 euros, followed by Cataluña at 37,937 euros and Baleares at 35,902 euros. Canarias registers 29,596 euros. At the bottom, Extremadura has the lowest figure at 24,749 euros, with Castilla-La Mancha at 27,830 euros, Andalucía at 27,497 euros and Murcia at 28,623 euros in the lower band. La Razón presents these as a gap of up to 18,000 euros between Extremadura and Madrid.

Rental income

eldiario.es used the same statistics to map rental income by postal code across 66 major Spanish cities. San Jaume in the Balearic Islands has the highest rental income in Spain, with an average income of almost 70,000 euros per declarant, of which 15% comes from property. Torreblanca has almost no rental income, at 17 euros per year. According to eldiario.es, a third of the rental income paid in Spain went to the neighbourhoods of the richest 10% of the country. Muntaner in Barcelona, with 127,000 euros per person, draws 7% of its income from property. eldiario.es notes that the averages include every declarant, not only those who receive rent, and that the figures refer to where rent is collected, not where it is paid.

Movement since 2020

El Mundo reports that Muntaner's income rose 59.3% since 2020, the largest cumulative increase in the period, moving it from 11th to 4th place. Ciudad Vieja y Centro de A Coruña recorded the biggest rise of 2024 at 121.1%, climbing from 59th to 7th, though El Mundo notes that it had ranked second in 2020 and then fell 65.5% the following year. Castellana in Madrid rose 16.4%, according to ABC, and Aravaca 12.9%. Sources differ on Fuente del Fresno, which El Mundo says grew 28.6% in 2024 against 19% for Ciudalcampo, while El País gives 9% for Fuente del Fresno and 19% for Ciudalcampo.