WalkablyIs San Sebastián walkable?
This page covers greater San Sebastián: 250,000 people, including Donostia / San Sebastián and Errenteria.
In San Sebastián, the walk to a place to eat is the strong point: 3 minutes for the typical building, much better than most of Europe. Its weakest point against Europe is the walk to shops, and even that is 4 minutes for the typical building, better than most of Europe. Walking is easiest in Lezo (score 76) and hardest in Igeldo (score 34): a gap of 42 points.
The walk to eight daily needs
The typical walk is the middle value: half of the buildings in San Sebastián have a shorter walk, and half have a longer one. The words compare it with every place where people live in the 20 countries on the map, so the same minutes get the same word everywhere.
| Need | Typical walk | Compared with Europe | Buildings with one within 20 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groceries | 4 min | Much better than most | 90% |
| Food and drink | 3 min | Much better than most | 98% |
| Shops | 4 min | Better than most | 88% |
| Health | 5 min | Much better than most | 87% |
| School | 5 min | Better than most | 90% |
| Parks | 2 min | Much better than most | 95% |
| Culture | 8 min | Better than most | 86% |
| Public transport | 2 min | Much better than most | 96% |
Compared with the rest of the country
The map is cut into six-sided cells 55 m across, and every cell that a street passes through gets a score: we call these street cells. We sort all 16,714,737 street cells in Spain from hardest to easiest to walk, then cut the list into five equal groups, called fifths. In San Sebastián, 77% of the street cells are in the most walkable fifth, more than the 20% of an average place.
| Fifth of the street cells in Spain | Bar | San Sebastián |
|---|---|---|
| Most walkable fifth | 77% | |
| Second fifth | 17% | |
| Middle fifth | 4% | |
| Fourth fifth | under 1% | |
| Least walkable fifth | 2% |
The city at a glance
On the map, click any street to see its score and the walk to each need.
The most and least walkable areas
Each street cell takes the name of the nearest neighbourhood, village or town on OpenStreetMap, up to 1.5 km away. We rank the 9 areas where people live: each has at least 200 street cells and 160 buildings, and at least a quarter as many buildings per street cell as San Sebastián as a whole, so ports, hill parks and farmland drop out. Click a name to open it on the map.
Even Igeldo, the least walkable area here, has 64% of its street cells in the most walkable fifth in Spain. San Sebastián walks far better than most of the country, so even its weakest areas beat most other places.
Most walkable
| Area | Typical score | In the top fifth |
|---|---|---|
| 76 | 80% | |
| 74 | 97% | |
| 74 | 99% | |
| 71 | 90% |
Cities like San Sebastián
These three cities come closest to San Sebastián in number of people and typical score, from any of the 20 countries. San Sebastián scores higher than 1 of them and lower than 2.
| City | Country | People | Typical score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leiden | Netherlands | 276,000 | 71 |
| Nancy | France | 218,000 | 71 |
| Mainz | Germany | 225,000 | 72 |
What this page covers
This page uses the area Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, calls greater San Sebastián: the city and the towns that have grown into it. Besides San Sebastián itself, it takes in Donostia / San Sebastián, Errenteria and Pasaia. About 250,000 people live there (2024 figure). Inside it we scored 9,058 street cells with 10,394 buildings in them.
Every number here comes from the same scores as the map. The score runs from 0 to 100. The walk to eight daily needs on real streets makes up 60% of it, and how pleasant the streets are makes up 40%. The comparison with Europe counts every place by its buildings, 163,668,724 buildings in all. How the score works.