Barcelona is well-known for many things. It may not be the biggest city in Europe, but it’s surely one of the most popular to visit. Do you know the makeup of its population? How many museums there are? We’re taking a look solely at the numbers behind the city in this article.

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Do you know the numbers behind Barcelona?

Population of Barcelona in numbers

Barcelona is the 17th most populated city in Europe. It is the second-largest city in Spain (after Madrid) with a population of about 1.7 million people (in 2019).

17.8% of the population in 2017 in Barcelona were foreigners. Can you guess which countries they are from? Barcelona’s highest number of foreigners come from Italy. The second most prominent group are the Chinese, the third are from Pakistan, followed by those from France and Morocco.

Geography & Climate

The city of Barcelona extends over square 102.15 kilometres, its highest point is Tibidabo Mountain which stands 512m tall.

Barcelona shares the same latitude (41.38°N) as Instanbul, Chicago, and Rome and the same longitude (2.15°E) as Palma and Paris.

Barcelona has 10 beaches totalling 4.2km of sandy shoreline. It has a great number or parks and gardens as well – 69.

The hottest temperature ever recorded in Barcelona was 39.8°C in 1982 and the lowest was -10°C in 1956.

Barcelona is the 43rd best liveable city on the list of the Quality of Living City Ranking.

Tourism

Barcelona is the 4th most visited city in Europe after London, Paris and Istanbul. It receives an average of 9 million visitors a year.

Barcelona’s port is extremely popular. It sees the most passengers in Europe and is 4th in the world overall. 867 cruise ships docked in Barcelona’s port in 2018.

An average of 44.2 million passengers came through Barcelona’s El Prat Airport every year.

Transportation

Barcelona is a very easy city to access by public transportation. It boasts 12 metro lines, with 180 stations totalling 146km of track. There are 150 bus lines (135 daytime routes and 17 night buses). The city is constantly improving mobility and has focused on expanding its bike paths as well. Its total cycling network is about 200km.

Buildings in Barcelona

Hotel Arts is the tallest building at 154m (44 floors) tall.

Barcelona also has a great number of markets – 39 food markets and 4 that sell other things.

The city is divided into 10 districts and 73 neighbourhoods.

Barcelona has 66 museums, some of the stranger ones including the Museum of Funeral Carriages, the Erotic Museum, the Perfume Museum and the Chocolate Museum.

There are 542 centres of worship from 15 different religions, with 243 Catholic churches and centres.

Sports & Education

Barcelona’s football team Barça has won 74 trophies domestically. It’s the second-most profitable team in Europe (€690.4million) after Real Madrid and the 4th most-valuable in the world with a value of $4.06 billion. The stadium, Camp Nou, is the biggest football stadium in Europe (4th in the world) and holds 99,354 fans.

3 out of 10 of the best university in Spain can be found in Barcelona: the University of Barcelona, the University of Pompeu Fabra and the Autonomous University of Barcelona. The city has 9 public universities and 15 private ones.

Are we missing any numbers? What did you find most interesting?

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