The Valencian Community has a total of 245,082 swimming pools, which means that the region has one swimming pool for every 21 people, putting the region higher than the national average, which stands at one for every 37 inhabitants, and Orihuela is amongst the leaders in the country. The Balearic Islands come out on top, with one swimming pool for every 17 registered people.
Orihuela has a total of 7,092 swimming pools, although it is beaten by both Xàbia with 9,097, and Elche, with 8,329.
If you do find that your local pool is a little busy at times then we suggest a trip to Benissa, where there are just 2.83 inhabitants for each pool. It’s not a dissimilar picture in Xàbia with 3.08 inhabitants for each pool, but even closer is Rojales where there are 3.42 residents for each pool in the municipality.
Of course, there is a more serious issue that has been highlighted by the figures, and that is the amount of water required to fill them, especially when Spain is suffering drought. An average a pool of four by eight metres has a 48,000-litre capacity, filling all these pools requires 60.77 cubic hectometres of water, which is equivalent to 0.1% of the capacity of the reservoirs (56,136 Hm3) and 2 .6% of the consumption of Spanish households (around 133 litres per person and year in 2020, according to the INE.
Representatives from the sector point out however that currently, in Spain, swimming pools have a global water consumption much lower than years ago, due to the fact that the old practice of annual emptying-filling is now residual, thanks to the treatments of water.
Of the more than 1.2 million swimming pools registered -99% of them outdoors and 1% covered-, 300,754 (23.7%) are in Andalusia; 245,082 (19.36%) in the Valencian Community; 192,909 (15.25%) in Catalonia; and 137,913 (10.89%) in the Community of Madrid.
The municipalities with the most swimming pools are Madrid, with 13,842, which means only one for every 238 inhabitants; Córdoba, with 11,538, one for every 28; and Marbella (Málaga), with 10,662, one for every 14.
