93% Of Torrevieja Population Live In Vulnerable Neighbourhoods
Posted: 06 Jul 2026 10:49
The report behind the article is published every 10 years, but based on data from several years previous. This latest report is based on data from 2021, so I guess the situation in Torrevieja may have improved, or may have got worse over the last 5 years.
The indicators used to gain the results: the population's level of education, income, the unemployment rate, and housing conditions.
I have put a link at the bottom to an interactive map produced by RTVE where you can scroll/zoom in on a map to see the areas where 93% population of Torrevieja are deemed as at medium level of vulnerability. Worth noting that a large portion by area of Orihuela Costa falls into the higher severe level of vulnerability.
https://www.informacion.es/elche/2026/0 ... 52413.html
Google Translate, minus images:
The province has 60 vulnerable neighbourhoods
Alicante has 19 districts, Elche has 12, and Torrevieja has 93% of its population located in these areas.
Low incomes, higher unemployment, lower levels of education, and housing in poor condition. These are some of the characteristics shared by the 60 neighbourhoods in the province of Alicante included in the latest Catalog of Vulnerable Neighbourhoods , a study available on the e-cienciaDatos website of the Madroño Consortium. This catalog, published every ten years by the Observatory of Urban Vulnerability in collaboration with the Research Group on Architecture, Urbanism and Sustainability (GIAU+Sa) at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and the Ministry of Housing, identifies the areas with the greatest social and economic difficulties in municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. The latest edition, released this year but containing data from 2021, identifies Torrevieja as the fourth Spanish city with the highest percentage of its population living in vulnerable neighbourhoods, specifically 92.9% of its inhabitants.
In the province, this figure is followed by Elda with over 77%, Benidorm with 67.3%, and Orihuela with 63.5%. San Vicente del Raspeig and Alcoy also appear in this report with their neighbourhoods of Santa Faz and Zona Nord, respectively. Alicante and Elche, for their part, have the two highest numbers of neighbourhoods with these characteristics in the province, nineteen and twelve respectively. Overall, according to Clara García Bellot, the architect and researcher behind the study, 51.03% of the inhabitants of Alicante's large municipalities reside in vulnerable neighbourhoods.
Almost the entire population
The case of Torrevieja is the most striking in the entire report, with eleven neighbourhoods classified as vulnerable, occupying a large part of the city center. This figure impresses even the researchers, as García Bellot told this newspaper, since only Sanlúcar de Barrameda (in Cádiz), Melilla, and La Línea de la Concepción (also in Cádiz) have higher percentages among all the Spanish municipalities analyzed. Furthermore, the city not only maintains the vulnerability identified a decade ago but has also added two new neighbourhoods since the previous report.
"It's clear that vulnerability persists throughout the entire urban area, and two new neighbourhoods have been added to this year's report," explains García Bellot. Unlike other cities, none of Torrevieja's neighbourhoods reach the critical vulnerability category, although all present a medium level of vulnerability, an increase compared to the last report, in which the neighbourhoods were primarily considered to have mild vulnerability, according to the architect and researcher behind the study.
The researcher points out that, in the case of this city, vulnerability is primarily due to social and labour-related factors. In other words, the most significant indicators are those related to income, unemployment, and education level, while the condition of housing is not the main factor explaining the inclusion of these neighbourhoods in the list.
Critical vulnerability in Elche and Alicante
Alicante and Elche, however, are the cities with the highest concentration of vulnerable neighbourhoods in the province . In Alicante, three of these neighbourhoods are classified as critically vulnerable: Virgen del Carmen-Cuatrocientas Viviendas-Nou Alacant, Virgen del Remedio II, and Colonia Requena-Juan XXIII. The catalog also includes areas such as Benalúa, Mercado-Campoamor, Campoamor, Carolinas Bajas-San Antón, and Florida, among others, and this year adds San Blas-Santo Domingo. In Elche, the only neighbourhood classified as critically vulnerable is Los Palmerales-San Antón, home to nearly 5,800 residents. The study also includes areas such as Carrús East and West, Casablanca, El Toscar, Canal-Sector V, and San José, among others, without identifying any new areas with these characteristics in the last decade.
The situation has also evolved differently in both cities. While Alicante has gained over 30,000 residents in vulnerable neighbourhoods compared to the previous report, in Elche that population has decreased by more than 28,000 after four neighbourhoods were removed from the study. According to the researcher, "the factors that lead to vulnerability are often inherited, but in large cities it is usually caused by gentrification and over-tourism, which empty the historic centers and drive people to the outskirts," she explains.
Dimensions and indicators
But how is the vulnerability of a neighbourhood measured? The truth is that these criteria, far from being based on subjective perception, are entirely grounded in the study of three main dimensions that measure this factor: the relational, the employment, and the residential. To do this, they use four main indicators: the population's level of education, income, the unemployment rate, and housing conditions. Furthermore, García Bellot explains that this new catalog incorporates an important change compared to previous versions. "Previously, only the level of education was considered within the relational dimension, but now income is also included because data is now available," he points out. In this way, the economic capacity of households now carries more weight when creating the urban vulnerability map.
Therefore, to be considered a vulnerable neighbourhood, it is sufficient for an area to exceed the established threshold for one of these indicators. The study then classifies each neighbourhood according to the intensity of that vulnerability, differentiating between mild, medium, severe, and critical levels. In the latter two cases, the concentration of population with low levels of education, unemployment, or low income is considerably higher than the average.
Detect areas
Los Palmerales-San Antón, in Elche, is one of the examples of critical vulnerability included in the report. According to the researcher, "in this case, the predominantly critical level is social and housing , the latter being classified from 1 to 9, with the first number being the best and the last the worst, and in this case, it is 7.04," she explains.
The work begins with census tracts. When several of them exceed the reference values established by the study and, together, comprise at least 3,500 inhabitants, they become a statistically vulnerable area. "That's the first step in defining the neighbourhood," summarizes García Bellot.
This system makes it possible to detect areas that share the same social and economic characteristics, even though administratively they are part of different neighbourhoods or their boundaries do not exactly coincide with those used by the city councils.
The report
The researcher emphasizes that the main objective of the catalog is not only to describe the current situation, but also to provide a useful tool for guiding public policy. The data remains open so that neighbourhood associations and researchers can use it to analyze the evolution of these neighbourhoods and design actions tailored to each area . "What interests us most is the evolution," says García Bellot.
In fact, comparing different editions reveals how some neighbourhoods have been removed from the list after improving their indicators, while others have remained for decades or have even seen their situation worsen. This temporal perspective transforms the study into a snapshot of urban inequalities and a tool for measuring whether policies implemented in recent years have succeeded in reducing vulnerability or whether, on the contrary, it continues to concentrate in the same areas of cities.
----
https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20260630/m ... 7138.shtml
The indicators used to gain the results: the population's level of education, income, the unemployment rate, and housing conditions.
I have put a link at the bottom to an interactive map produced by RTVE where you can scroll/zoom in on a map to see the areas where 93% population of Torrevieja are deemed as at medium level of vulnerability. Worth noting that a large portion by area of Orihuela Costa falls into the higher severe level of vulnerability.
https://www.informacion.es/elche/2026/0 ... 52413.html
Google Translate, minus images:
The province has 60 vulnerable neighbourhoods
Alicante has 19 districts, Elche has 12, and Torrevieja has 93% of its population located in these areas.
Low incomes, higher unemployment, lower levels of education, and housing in poor condition. These are some of the characteristics shared by the 60 neighbourhoods in the province of Alicante included in the latest Catalog of Vulnerable Neighbourhoods , a study available on the e-cienciaDatos website of the Madroño Consortium. This catalog, published every ten years by the Observatory of Urban Vulnerability in collaboration with the Research Group on Architecture, Urbanism and Sustainability (GIAU+Sa) at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and the Ministry of Housing, identifies the areas with the greatest social and economic difficulties in municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. The latest edition, released this year but containing data from 2021, identifies Torrevieja as the fourth Spanish city with the highest percentage of its population living in vulnerable neighbourhoods, specifically 92.9% of its inhabitants.
In the province, this figure is followed by Elda with over 77%, Benidorm with 67.3%, and Orihuela with 63.5%. San Vicente del Raspeig and Alcoy also appear in this report with their neighbourhoods of Santa Faz and Zona Nord, respectively. Alicante and Elche, for their part, have the two highest numbers of neighbourhoods with these characteristics in the province, nineteen and twelve respectively. Overall, according to Clara García Bellot, the architect and researcher behind the study, 51.03% of the inhabitants of Alicante's large municipalities reside in vulnerable neighbourhoods.
Almost the entire population
The case of Torrevieja is the most striking in the entire report, with eleven neighbourhoods classified as vulnerable, occupying a large part of the city center. This figure impresses even the researchers, as García Bellot told this newspaper, since only Sanlúcar de Barrameda (in Cádiz), Melilla, and La Línea de la Concepción (also in Cádiz) have higher percentages among all the Spanish municipalities analyzed. Furthermore, the city not only maintains the vulnerability identified a decade ago but has also added two new neighbourhoods since the previous report.
"It's clear that vulnerability persists throughout the entire urban area, and two new neighbourhoods have been added to this year's report," explains García Bellot. Unlike other cities, none of Torrevieja's neighbourhoods reach the critical vulnerability category, although all present a medium level of vulnerability, an increase compared to the last report, in which the neighbourhoods were primarily considered to have mild vulnerability, according to the architect and researcher behind the study.
The researcher points out that, in the case of this city, vulnerability is primarily due to social and labour-related factors. In other words, the most significant indicators are those related to income, unemployment, and education level, while the condition of housing is not the main factor explaining the inclusion of these neighbourhoods in the list.
Critical vulnerability in Elche and Alicante
Alicante and Elche, however, are the cities with the highest concentration of vulnerable neighbourhoods in the province . In Alicante, three of these neighbourhoods are classified as critically vulnerable: Virgen del Carmen-Cuatrocientas Viviendas-Nou Alacant, Virgen del Remedio II, and Colonia Requena-Juan XXIII. The catalog also includes areas such as Benalúa, Mercado-Campoamor, Campoamor, Carolinas Bajas-San Antón, and Florida, among others, and this year adds San Blas-Santo Domingo. In Elche, the only neighbourhood classified as critically vulnerable is Los Palmerales-San Antón, home to nearly 5,800 residents. The study also includes areas such as Carrús East and West, Casablanca, El Toscar, Canal-Sector V, and San José, among others, without identifying any new areas with these characteristics in the last decade.
The situation has also evolved differently in both cities. While Alicante has gained over 30,000 residents in vulnerable neighbourhoods compared to the previous report, in Elche that population has decreased by more than 28,000 after four neighbourhoods were removed from the study. According to the researcher, "the factors that lead to vulnerability are often inherited, but in large cities it is usually caused by gentrification and over-tourism, which empty the historic centers and drive people to the outskirts," she explains.
Dimensions and indicators
But how is the vulnerability of a neighbourhood measured? The truth is that these criteria, far from being based on subjective perception, are entirely grounded in the study of three main dimensions that measure this factor: the relational, the employment, and the residential. To do this, they use four main indicators: the population's level of education, income, the unemployment rate, and housing conditions. Furthermore, García Bellot explains that this new catalog incorporates an important change compared to previous versions. "Previously, only the level of education was considered within the relational dimension, but now income is also included because data is now available," he points out. In this way, the economic capacity of households now carries more weight when creating the urban vulnerability map.
Therefore, to be considered a vulnerable neighbourhood, it is sufficient for an area to exceed the established threshold for one of these indicators. The study then classifies each neighbourhood according to the intensity of that vulnerability, differentiating between mild, medium, severe, and critical levels. In the latter two cases, the concentration of population with low levels of education, unemployment, or low income is considerably higher than the average.
Detect areas
Los Palmerales-San Antón, in Elche, is one of the examples of critical vulnerability included in the report. According to the researcher, "in this case, the predominantly critical level is social and housing , the latter being classified from 1 to 9, with the first number being the best and the last the worst, and in this case, it is 7.04," she explains.
The work begins with census tracts. When several of them exceed the reference values established by the study and, together, comprise at least 3,500 inhabitants, they become a statistically vulnerable area. "That's the first step in defining the neighbourhood," summarizes García Bellot.
This system makes it possible to detect areas that share the same social and economic characteristics, even though administratively they are part of different neighbourhoods or their boundaries do not exactly coincide with those used by the city councils.
The report
The researcher emphasizes that the main objective of the catalog is not only to describe the current situation, but also to provide a useful tool for guiding public policy. The data remains open so that neighbourhood associations and researchers can use it to analyze the evolution of these neighbourhoods and design actions tailored to each area . "What interests us most is the evolution," says García Bellot.
In fact, comparing different editions reveals how some neighbourhoods have been removed from the list after improving their indicators, while others have remained for decades or have even seen their situation worsen. This temporal perspective transforms the study into a snapshot of urban inequalities and a tool for measuring whether policies implemented in recent years have succeeded in reducing vulnerability or whether, on the contrary, it continues to concentrate in the same areas of cities.
----
https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20260630/m ... 7138.shtml