Expat haven Torrevieja named poorest city in Spain

The southeast Spanish city of Torrevieja is the poorest city in Spain, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

The agency revealed that the Costa Blanca resort, a popular destination among expats, has a lower per capita income than any other Spanish city.

However, despite the recent figures, due to the large population of foreigners in the city, analysts have indicated that the figures could be misleading. Just half of the population is local, and because expats file their taxes in their homelands, their income is not accounted for in the INE statistics.

But poverty remains a serious problem in Torrevieja, largely because of the difference in population between the summer and winter months. Resident Arlene Alarcon, 33, noted that most of the work was only available during the summer, and many people were forced to claim unemployment benefits in the winter just to get by.

Meanwhile, an INE spokeswoman admitted that such cities’ figures could be skewed because of sizable foreign populations.

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