Benidorm vs Torrevieja: the figures side by side

Benidorm and Torrevieja are the two largest resort towns of the Costa Blanca, at opposite ends of it. Benidorm, in the Marina Baixa north of Alicante, is a vertical city: apartment towers along two beaches, a year-round tourist season and the TRAM d'Alacant to Alicante. Torrevieja, in the Vega Baja to the south, is spread out and low-rise, built around two salt lagoons, with many residential estates and one of the largest foreign communities in Spain. Neither town has a mainline railway station, and both are served mainly by the Alicante-Elche airport.

Both towns have many more people in summer than on the municipal register. That changes the picture for recorded crime: dividing by registered residents alone inflates the rate for a resort town. We therefore show crime per thousand people with two denominators, registered residents and residents plus the average occupancy of tourist lets, and explain the method below the table.

The table puts the official figures for both towns side by side, each row with its source and period.

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