Where do Catalans with the highest and lowest salaries live?
New statistics from Idescat break down salaries according to their territoriality
BarcelonaSant Cugat del Vallès is the municipality with more than 50,000 inhabitants that registered the highest average salary in 2024, with €54,549 gross – more than €22,000 above the Catalan average of €31,746. It is followed by Castelldefels (€38,570) and Barcelona (€36,466), and Cerdanyola del Vallès, Granollers, Vilanova i la Geltrú, and Sabadell also have salaries above the average. Conversely, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, with a gross salary of €26,003, is the municipality with the lowest salary (€5,743 less than the average), along with Hospitalet de Llobregat (€26,638) and Reus (€26,922). This data is extracted fromTerritorial wage statisticsA new experimental statistic from Idescat (Statistical Institute of Catalonia) aims to provide detailed information on the wage income of residents in municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants in Catalonia, based on a continuous sample of working lives. The data also concludes that in 2024, all municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants showed an increase in the gross wage income of their residents compared to 2023. All except Manresa, which remained practically stable. The municipalities leading the increase were Sant Cugat del Vallès (5.9%), Mollet del Vallès (5.7%), and Granollers (5.6%), with increases almost 3 percentage points above the Catalan average (3.0%), while at the bottom were the municipalities of Manresa (-0.1%), Girona (0.3%), and Girona (0.3%).
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Broken down by gender, in Catalonia in 2024, the average gross salary for men was €34,473 and for women €28,765. Looking at municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, Sant Cugat del Vallès, with €63,625, and Castelldefels, with €43,897, had the highest average gross salary for men. For women, the highest average gross salary was found in Sant Cugat del Vallès, with €45,705, and Barcelona, with €33,349. Conversely, the lowest average gross salary for both men and women was recorded in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, with €28,538 and €22,782, respectively. By economic sector, the highest gross salary incomes in Catalonia in 2024 were found among those affiliated with the communications, financial activities, and real estate sector (€45,469) and the public administration, defense, and compulsory social security sector (€38,544). Among municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, most follow the same pattern as the Catalan average, with some exceptions: in Sant Cugat del Vallès, Castelldefels, and Tarragona, the economic sector with the highest gross salary incomes was industry, and in Granollers, it was construction.
