Valencia's Rocafort is Spain’s 11thrichest town
A TOWN in Valencia province has squeezed into Spain’s top 15 wealthiest municipalities, having climbed five rungs of the ladder in the last three years.
With the highest average annual income in the Valencia region, Rocafort is also the 11thrichest in the country and one of the few near the top of the ranking which is not in the Madrid region or the province of Barcelona.
Every year, the tax office takes figures from residents’ declarations to work out the average in municipalities of 1,000 or more inhabitants, and for at least the last five, the number one slot has been hogged by the Madrid satellite town of Pozuelo de Alarcón, a celebrity belt home to actors, singers, footballers and politicians with an average beforetax
annual income per head of € 79,506.
This year, the 10,000strong village of Matadepera ( Barcelona province) has knocked Pozuelo’s crown off after a gaming industry tycoon’s multibillioneuro business sale saw it quadrupling its annual average to € 218,788 per capita.
In Rocafort – which is close to Valencia city – the mean average gross yearly earnings per resident is € 52,320, giving a net income of € 39,432, or a monthly € 3,286.
For the region as a whole, the average gross income is € 24,804, and net, € 20,516, or € 1,710 a month.
This is around € 3,000 a year below the national average, which is € 27,632.
L’Alcora in Castellón province is the region’s secondwealthiest town and Spain’s 33rd with a perhead gross income of € 41,566, followed by Godella ( Valencia province) at € 39,729, and 39th nationwide.
Next is Bétera ( Valencia), 62nd in Spain (€ 36,679); L’Eliana ( Valencia), 67th nationally (€ 35,927); and Benicàssim ( Castellón), 69th in Spain (€ 35,863).
In Alicante province, the richest town is San Juan, 262nd nationally and with gross annual perhead earnings of € 29,174.
The region’s poorest towns in terms of average income are Hondón de los Frailes (€ 16,229 before tax), San Fulgencio (€ 16,179) and Traiguera ( Castellón) at € 16,312.