Quality of life

Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia. Its metropolitan area is home to almost two-thirds of the Catalan population and similar in size to Frankfurt, Munich and Rome in terms of population (4.8 million).

Barcelona is a cosmopolitan city with museums, theatres, architecture, music, an historical Gothic quarter and a safe, pleasant street life with a wide range of events, festivals, exhibitions, etc. The Mediterranean lifestyle makes Catalonia attractive for qualified professionals and students because of the street life and pleasant climate, and also because of urban development where the focus is on people and the open approach to creativity and innovation.

Barcelona is the 4th most visited European city, the 11th most visited city in the world. The port of Barcelona is the top cruise-ship destination on the Mediterranean. Barcelona  airport is the 9th busiest European airport in terms of passenger traffic and ranks among the European airports that have shown the greatest increase in activity.

Talent and creativity

Catalan society is known for its talent, creativity and qualifications, along with motivation and a strong commitment to work. Examples of talent are to be found in architecture (Antoni Gaudí, Oriol Bohigas, Josep Puig i Cadafalch, Ildefons Cerdà ...), art (Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí ...), music (Montserrat Caballé, Josep Carreras, Pau Casals ...), cuisine (Ferran Adrià, Carme Ruscalleda, Santi Santamaria ...), sports (Pau Gasol, Pep Guardiola, Dani Pedrosa, Gemma Mengual, Marc Coma...), science and medicine (Joan Oró, Moisès Broggi, Valentí Fuster, Narcís Monturiol, Ignasi Barraquer, Joan Massagué...) and so on.

Business Schools and Universities

In Barcelona there are several renowned international business schools such as IESE (in second place among business schools in the ranking of the world's top 100 MBAs published by The Economist 2008 and ranked third in the world in the Financial Times Executive Education 2009 ranking) and ESADE (listed by Business Week in 2008 among the top 10 MBA programs outside the United States and number one in Europe for the third consecutive year according to recruiters and named the best business school by the Wall Street Journal (in 2006 and 2007).

In Catalonia there are 12 public and private universities with more than 227,000 students and more than 400 different degrees. Catalonia is home to 17 international schools that offer the educational programmes of their respective countries of origin. Several multinational companies have already set up there corporate university in Catalonia. The First International Corporate Universities Forum will take place in Barcelona, on September 27 and 28, 2010.

International Trade Fairs

Barcelona is the fourth European city in available space of exhibition (280.000 m2). With 136 congresses celebrated in 2008, Barcelona is in third place in the ranking of the world's most popular cities organising international events, acording to ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association). International Trade Fairs in Barcelona include Mobile World Congress, Barcelona Degusta, 080 Barcelona Fashion, Barcelona Meeting Point, International Logistics and Materials Handling Exhibition, World Innovation Summit, International Tourism Show, Barcelona Motor Show, Construmat, Hispack, SonImagFoto and SalonNautico.

Growing services activities

Services to companies, trade, energy and transport suppliers, telecommunications and finances are new "industrial-related" activities that, together with "traditional" industry, account for 66% of Catalan GDP and 56% of employment. Growing services activities, highly concentrated in Barcelona, include health and social services, ICTs, the media, audiovisual and communication, logistics, tourism and education. The price of renting office space in Barcelona is one of the lowest in Europe.

Medical centres and services

Barcelona stands out for the prestige of its medical services, which are renowned within the international medical community. Dexeus, Barraquer, Teknon, Quiron, Planas, Tres Torres, Corachan, Puigverd, Plató and CIMA are some examples of its medical centres. In 2008, more than 10,000 foreign patients were treated in Barcelona's hospitals and health centres. Catalonia stands out for its clinical research in the field of human health.

There is a network of 215 hospitals with 50,000 professionals working in the sector and 31,000 doctors. Six of the leading Spanish hospitals in terms of scientific production are in Catalonia.