As if Barcelona, with its near-perfect weather, striking architecture and miles of golden, sandy urban beaches wasn’t revered enough already, 2025 has made it a must-visit, across Europe and the world. The big news, of course, is that after almost a century and a half, Gaudí’s famous church, the Sagrada Familia, is almost finished. The towers of the evangelists John and Matthew lit up the city in 2023, leaving only the sixth and final 568-foot Jesus Christ tower to open this year.
Despite having the EU’s highest density of cars and replacing the pro-walking and biking mayor Ada Colau (the city’s first woman to hold the role) with the car-championing Jaume Collboni in 2023, the city continues to unveil ambitious pedestrian projects. Its new €52-million Consell de Cent pedestrianised 21 blocks of a four-lane cross-town street, part of what is being called a “green axis” urban park in an area popular with both locals and visitors. Dotted with benches and community squares, the pathway gained its inspiration from a local pilot project that, unsurprisingly, improved citizens’ mental health. It’s investments like this that have powered the city to a Top 3 spot in our overall Livability index.
Barcelona’s #4 Lovability ranking means the 12 million annual tourists who flocked here pre-pandemic, more than doubling Barcelona’s population, are back. The city’s implementation of some of Europe’s strictest vacation rental rules will be tested as it aims to resupply a chronic shortage of resident housing. Mayor Collboni’s zero-tolerance short-term rental policy exceeds even New York City’s strict Local Law 18.
Obviously, Barcelona is also no longer content with digital nomads, and is now aggressively securing massive foreign investment that will benefit the city over the long term, ranging from Lufthansa Group, the largest airline group in Europe (which opened its first southern European digital hub in 2023) to U.S. real estate developer Panattoni (which will invest €277 million to build the largest data centre in the region). The city’s #6 Business Ecosystem ranking will only improve as global innovation investment, like Intel’s recent Barcelona Supercomputing Center initiative as part of a €34-billion EU-wide semiconductor push, comes online.