Revealed: top ten rudest towns and cities in Spain

Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Granada and Elche in Valencia have been named the top three places in Spain with the worst manners, according to a new survey. Malaga is in the top ten too, coming in at number eight.

Online class platform Preply interviewed more than 1,500 residents across 19 areas of Spain and asked them how often they encounter rude behaviour, their opinion on tipping, and who they think behave worse, locals or outsiders. The data was then analysed to establish a ranking of the locations on a scale of one to 10 (with 10 being the highest rating).

The worst performer was Santa Cruz de Tenerife which, with a score of 6.06, won the gold medal for bad manners "because its inhabitants spend all day glued to the telephone or for not giving way to other cars, among other reasons", according to the survey. It is followed by Granada with a score of 5.95, and then the town of Elche in Alicante province which scored 5.81 and stands out for "not respecting personal space".

Complete ranking of the rudest towns / cities:

1. Santa Cruz de Tenerife - 6.06

2. Granada - 5.95

3. Elche - 5.81

4. San Sebastián - 5.77

5. Bilbao - 5.73

6. Palma - 5.69

7. Barcelona - 5.64

8. Malaga - 5.61

9. Valladolid - 5.58

10. Madrid - 5.53

Meanwhile, data was also collated on the most polite locations - those at the other end of the spectrum. Vigo, in Pontevedra, secured the top ranking with a score of 5.17, followed by A Coruña-Oleiros-Arteixo with 5.18 and Valencia with 5.28.

Top ten most polite towns / cities:

1. Vigo - 5.17

2. A Coruña- Oleiros-Arteixo - 5.18

3. Valencia - 5,28

4. Murcia - 5.30

5. Oviedo-Gijón-Avilés - 5.31

6. Las Palmas - 5.39

7. Zaragoza - 5.45

8. Seville - 5.45

9. Cadiz - 5.5

10. Madrid - 5.53

Some of the most impolite behaviours criticised by respondents in the survey were: "Being on the phone all the time, not welcoming strangers, watching videos in public, frosty body language, being noisy in public, not slowing down in pedestrian areas in a car or not respecting personal space."

The study also took into account whether those responsible were residents or non-residents of the towns and cities included in the rankings: "Among all cities, 21.25% thought that non-residents were ruder than residents, 26.04% indicated that locals were ruder in their view, 40.97% indicated similarity in the degree of rudeness on both sides, and 11.74% indicated that they did not know what to say."