Barcelona, March 31, 2026 – The city of Barcelona concluded 2025 with robust economic expansion, achieving a 2.7% GDP growth, a record number of Social Security affiliations, and a significant boost in high-tech, creative, and strategic sectors. This growth occurred despite global volatility stemming from geopolitical events.
Dynamic Economic Evolution in 2025
The year 2025 saw Barcelona’s economy maintain a dynamic evolution, characterized by increasing activity and employment, with a growing emphasis on high-value-added sectors. This resilience was observed against an international backdrop of new geopolitical uncertainties, particularly following the conflict in Iran.
These findings are detailed in the latest ‘Flash económico Barcelona’ report, compiled by the Studies Department of the Barcelona City Council’s Economic Promotion, Tourism, International Relations, and Sports Management. This report periodically analyzes the city’s key economic indicators.
Geopolitical Impact and Economic Outlook
This edition of the ‘Flash’ report includes a specific section on the economic repercussions of the conflict in Iran, which has caused a disruptive shift in the international economic and geopolitical landscape. The crisis led to an immediate surge in energy markets, with a notable increase in oil prices, and resulted in heightened volatility in financial markets and a significant rise in geopolitical risk.
Considering these factors, the ‘Flash’ estimates indicate a price rebound in 2026, with inflation rates potentially exceeding 4% depending on oil price developments. However, these projected levels are expected to remain below the peaks reached at the onset of the war in Ukraine. The document warns that this environment of high uncertainty could affect global investment, prices, and economic activity, necessitating close monitoring of these impacts in the coming months.
The ‘Flash económico Barcelona’ is a quarterly report from the Barcelona City Council, designed to analyze the evolution of Barcelona’s main economic indicators. It serves as an accessible tool for understanding the behavior of economic activity, the labor market, the business fabric, strategic sectors, and the city’s international projection.
Economic Context and Perspectives
The report highlights that Barcelona’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 2.7% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2025, aligning with national trends and surpassing the European Union average. Forecasts suggest sustained growth into 2026, with estimates placing Catalan GDP growth at 2.4%, supported by favorable internal demand, though subject to international developments.
Labor Market and Business Activity
Barcelona closed 2025 with 1.25 million Social Security affiliations, marking the highest value in the historical series for December and an increase of over 123,000 affiliations since 2019. In 2025, 9,146 commercial companies were established in Barcelona, a 2.4% increase from the previous year and the highest annual figure since 2007.
Regarding the office market in Barcelona, 2025 concluded with 317,000 m² of contracted space, a 9% increase over the previous year. The 22@ district accounted for over 40% of this contracting, solidifying its position as a primary attraction pole.
Knowledge Economy and Key Sectors
Technology and knowledge-intensive sectors represent 49.9% of the city’s Gross Value Added (GVA) and have been central to job creation, contributing approximately 90,000 new affiliations since 2019, according to the report.
Furthermore, strategic sectors demonstrated strong occupational dynamism in 2025, with particularly notable annual growth in the digital sector (+6.4%), knowledge-intensive and high-tech services (+5.6%), creative sectors (+5.2%), and health and bio-sectors (+3.3%), all exceeding the city’s average.
The Catalan start-up ecosystem has more than doubled over the last decade, with over 2,400 start-ups recorded in 2025, representing a 121% increase since 2016.
International Projection
Goods exports from the Barcelona area reached 77,891.9 million euros in 2025, growing faster than the national average and maintaining Barcelona’s position as Spain’s leading exporter (20.1%), the report states. The document also highlights Barcelona as Europe’s fifth most attractive city for visitors, entrepreneurs, and residents, according to the 2026 Europe’s Best Cities Report, remaining in the top 5 for the second consecutive year.
Barcelona welcomed 16 million visitors in 2025, returning to pre-pandemic levels, with a total expenditure of 10,376 million euros. This represents the highest figure in the historical series and is 23% higher than in 2019. Josep Tarradellas Airport achieved a record volume of passengers in 2025 (57.5 million), a year-on-year increase of +4.4%.
The Port of Barcelona closed 2025 with a total traffic of 69,452,054 tons, a figure very similar to the previous year. While total container traffic decreased compared to 2024 (-4.2%), there was strong performance in full import and export container traffic (+4% and +3% year-on-year).
