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Spain’s quality-of-life indicator edges higher, with new group breakdowns
INE’s experimental multidimensional index rose to 101.74 in 2025; this edition adds results by sex, education and nationality while eight of nine dimensions were updated.
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A modest national increase, with varied dimensions
Spain’s experimental Multidimensional Quality of Life Indicator (IMCV) rose to 101.74 points in 2025 from 101.43 in 2024, according to results published by the National Statistics Institute (INE) on 23 October. The index uses 2008 as its base year and combines indicators across nine dimensions. INE said six dimensions improved in 2025: material living conditions, work, health, education, environment and general life experience. Leisure and social relationships, and physical and personal safety, moved lower. Governance and basic rights was unchanged because the 2025 Living Conditions Survey did not include its triennial quality-of-life module.
This edition expands the release with breakdowns by sex, educational attainment and nationality, in addition to national and autonomous-community results. On the global measure, men registered 102.48 points and women 100.59. The pattern differed by dimension: women’s scores were higher in education and general life experience, by 10.95 and 9.36 points, respectively; men scored higher in physical and personal safety and environment, by 16.09 and 9.19 points. These are differences in index points, not percentage gaps, and they should not be interpreted as a causal account of social conditions.
By nationality, the global index stood at 102.76 for Spanish nationals, 101.48 for foreign nationals from the European Union and 97.28 for foreign nationals from the rest of the world. Spanish nationals had higher scores in education and material living conditions, while EU foreign residents had the highest score in general life experience and foreign residents from outside the EU had the highest score in physical and personal safety. The index is a synthetic measure: these comparisons summarize multiple indicators and do not imply that every person in one group shares the group’s average experience.
Regional data and index construction
The regional tables include scores of 105.43 for Navarra, 104.30 for La Rioja and 104.12 for the Basque Country. Ceuta recorded 98.33, Melilla 98.39 and the Canary Islands 99.40, against the national value of 101.74. Madrid’s year-on-year change was 0.59 points and the Valencian Community’s was 0.50. Because the normalization uses minimum and maximum values across regions and periods, INE warns that adding a new year can alter earlier values in the series; comparisons should use the same release vintage.
The IMCV is described by INE as experimental and annual. It synthesizes the institute’s broader Quality of Life Indicators through nine dimensions and, in this edition, 55 component indicators; eight dimensions were updated. The aggregation has two stages: individual indicators are first combined into dimension scores using the AMPI method, then the nine dimensions are combined into an overall index, normally with equal weights. For autonomous communities, users may change the weights to reflect their own priorities. This means the overall score is a summary whose interpretation depends on its construction and weighting, rather than a direct observation such as household income or life expectancy.
The figures refer primarily to residents in Spain, but component indicators can have different reference periods because the composite draws on multiple statistical sources. Most of the latest inputs refer to 2025. INE also notes that normalization is performed separately for the new sex, education and nationality breakdowns, which can revise the historical series for those groups. The index provides a structured way to compare broad dimensions and regional patterns, but the experimental label, uneven update schedule and normalization revisions should accompany any use of its headline value.
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