Barcelona, as one of the world's leading tourist destinations, is the capital of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain. This city is well-known for a number of prominent buildings, sandy beaches, and green parks. The climate here is mild and warm. Barcelona is also famous for its lively nightlife. The main languages are Spanish and Catalan. There is one interesting fact that Barcelona is one of the world’s most bike-friendly cities.
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Spanish healthcare system is considered as one of the best in the world. There are two types of the healthcare system: public and private. If you use the public one, you have to register for healthcare with the Spanish social security office. For registering you have to have next documents: Certificate of Residence in Spain, Certificate as a Local Resident, passport, S1 form. Furthermore, you can be asked for more documents. Public system provides free basic healthcare. Unfortunately, in Barcelona public healthcare is associated with long queues and routine. So if you want to save time and ready to pay for the healthcare, you can use private insurance. Expats moving to Barcelona are advised to make use of the robust private healthcare system.
It is suitable that almost all doctors in Barcelona can speak English. In Spain, you must have a referral from a doctor before visiting a hospital. Only in an emergency, people can go straight to the hospital.
Moreover, medications are provided by Spanish pharmacies and residents are required to pay a percentage of the cost of their prescription medication, because Spain uses a co-payment system (a percentage depends on your age and health).
There are 4 types of Higher Education Institutions in Spain: university schools (with short courses), university colleges (first three years of study), faculties (long courses in all academic disciplines), higher technical schools of engineering and architecture (long-term technical courses). Currently, Spain offers official and nonofficial degrees. Official degrees meet the requirement of the European Higher Education Area. So there are three official degrees: Bachelor's, Master's and PhD. Moreover, fees at public universities are: for a Bachelor’s degree EUR 700-3,700 per year, for a Master’s or Doctorate EUR 17-65 per credit. In private universities fees are higher and can vary from EUR 5,000 to EUE 15,000. Here's the link where you can find universities, colleges and education providers in Barcelona.
Barcelona, as a city with a humid subtropical climate, is considered as a place with mild, humid winters and hot summers. The average temperature in summer is 28°C (84 °F) and in winter 12°C (54 °F). On average there are 78 rainy days per year in Barcelona.
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Barcelona, as a safe city, has a safety level of 69% safe according to SafeAround’s rating and 57% according to Numbeo. Furthermore, this city is considered as the 15th safest city in the world by Business Insider. And about crime, Barcelona is safe for residents, especially in terms of health security and personal safety.
safest city in the world, according to Business Insider
Numbeo
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Barcelona, as the 4th most economically powerful city by gross GDP in Europe, is one of the richest cities in Spain. Furthermore, this city was the 14th most "livable city" in the world in 2009 according to Monocle. Barcelona is a hub for business and trade, so a lot of expats choose this city to live and work.
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Expat communities are common in Barcelona. There you can connect with other expats, find friends and help if it is needed. Here are some of them:
InterNations
Barcelona Expats - International BCN
Expat Meetups in Barcelona
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