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Estepona vs Sarasota (Sarasota County)

Staying in the US in Sarasota (Sarasota County), or retiring abroad to Estepona, Spain? Here is how they compare, figure by figure. Rent, electricity and groceries for a couple: USD $705–$1,026 a month in Estepona, USD $2,272 in Sarasota (Sarasota County). Coolest to warmest quarter: 12.2–23.1°C in Estepona, 17.5–27.4°C in Sarasota (Sarasota County). Spain has a retirement residence route; the United States has none. Estepona reaches the coast; Sarasota (Sarasota County) reaches the coast. In the table below, Estepona has the lower figure on "Minutes to a pharmacy, by road"; Sarasota (Sarasota County) has the lower figure on "Air quality (PM2.5)".

Sources: Rent, electricity and groceries · official sources, 2026-09-29 · CHELSA V2.1 bio10/bio11, 1981-2010 (~1 km), Karger et al., 2010 · Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores (Spain), consular services in the United States: visado de residencia no lucrativa, 2026-09-26 · USCIS: Green Card Eligibility Categories, 2026-09-26

Cost of living, safety, healthcare & climate: Estepona vs Sarasota (Sarasota County)

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Measure EsteponaAndalucía Sarasota (Sarasota County)Sarasota County
Monthly cost
Rent, power & groceries / month (couple) USD $705–$1,026 Rent, electricity and groceries · official sources · as of 2026-09-29–2026-10-07 · see the breakdown USD $2,272 Rent, electricity and groceries · official sources · as of 2026-09-29–2026-10-07 · see the breakdown
Housing
Rent One rent figure per town — asking where we have it, otherwise rent paid. Open "Which figure" for the method, the home it describes, and any other rent we hold. A "lowest" shows only when every town's figure is the same measurement.
USD $670 ($546–$867) per month · 80 m² home Rent paid · all leases EUR €600 (€489–€776) per month · European Central Bank, euro foreign exchange reference rates, 2026-10-30 Restated for an 80 m² home. From the source figure: EUR €675 (€550–€873) per month — the source's median home is 90 m², so its rent per m² × 80 2024 · 2,963 declared leases of flats · median dwelling 90 m² · whole municipality SERPAVI 2024, Ministerio de Vivienda y Agenda Urbana, from AEAT tax declarations · figure for 2024 Official source
Which figure, and the others we hold Rent paid · all leases — what tenants pay, including leases signed years ago Flats Rent paid (official) · median, middle half 25th–75th percentile
Rent paid · all leases — what tenants pay, including leases signed years ago Houses USD $894 ($638–$1,379) per month · Houses EUR €800 (€571–€1,234) per month · European Central Bank, euro foreign exchange reference rates, 2026-10-30 Rent paid (official) · median, middle half 25th–75th percentile 2024 · 493 declared leases of houses · median dwelling 133 m² · whole municipality SERPAVI 2024, Ministerio de Vivienda y Agenda Urbana, from AEAT tax declarations · figure for 2024 Official source
Asking rent no data Not yet measured by the current method. Rent is measured one way in every country: 2-bedroom, unfurnished, 12-month-or-longer leases, asking rent net of utilities, from listings inside the town's own footprint, published as the 10th–75th percentile band with its median from at least 30 listings (10 to 29 widen the band; below 10, no figure). No figure has been harvested for this town yet.
USD $2,144 per month · All home sizes, whole county Asking rent Zillow's typical observed asking rent, all home sizes, for the whole county Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), smoothed, all homes, county · figure for 2026 Commercial index
Which figure, and the others we hold Asking rent — what landlords are listing for All home sizes, whole county Asking rent (market index) · typical listed rent, all home sizes
Rent paid · all leases — what tenants pay, including leases signed years ago All home sizes, whole county USD $1,669 per month · All home sizes, whole county Rent paid (official) · median Median contract rent paid, all occupied rentals, whole county, ACS 2020–2024 US Census Bureau, ACS 5-year, B25058 median contract rent, county · figure for 2024 Official source
Benchmark rent — a government payment standard, not a market price 1-bedroom USD $1,686 per month · 1-bedroom HUD Fair Market Rent · 40th percentile, gross (utilities included) HUD Fair Market Rents, FY2026 (1-bedroom, county-exact) · figure for 2025 Official source
Climate · never ranked
Temperature Average temperature of the coldest and of the warmest three months of the year, 1981–2010.
How this is measured

Mean air temperature of the coldest and the warmest QUARTER, from CHELSA V2.1 bioclimatic variables bio11 and bio10 over the 1981-2010 climatology, at 30 arcsec (~1 km), averaged over the town's own stored footprint polygon. The low figure is the coldest-quarter mean and the high figure is the warmest-quarter mean: TWO named measures, not a range, so neither may ever be ranked. Two caveats travel with every figure: these are MODELED climatologies rather than a station record at the town, and the figure describes the FOOTPRINT, so a large municipio spanning a coast and a sierra reports a wider pair than the town center experiences.

12.2–23.1°C (54–74°F) CHELSA V2.1 bio10/bio11, 1981-2010 (~1 km), Karger et al. · figure for 2010 Official source 17.5–27.4°C (64–81°F) CHELSA V2.1 bio10/bio11, 1981-2010 (~1 km), Karger et al. · figure for 2010 Official source
Rainfall Total rain in the driest and in the wettest three months of the year, 1981–2010 average.
How this is measured

Total precipitation in the driest and the wettest QUARTER, from CHELSA V2.1 bioclimatic variables bio17 and bio16 over the 1981-2010 climatology, at 30 arcsec (~1 km), averaged over the town's own stored footprint polygon. The low figure is the driest-quarter total and the high figure is the wettest-quarter total: TWO named measures, not a range, so neither may be ranked. Two caveats travel with every figure: these are MODELED climatologies rather than a gauge record at the town, and the figure describes the FOOTPRINT, so a large municipio spanning a coast and a sierra reports a wider pair than the town center receives.

17.7–475.2 mm CHELSA V2.1 bio16/bio17, 1981-2010 (~1 km), Karger et al. · figure for 2010 Official source 169.6–681.5 mm CHELSA V2.1 bio16/bio17, 1981-2010 (~1 km), Karger et al. · figure for 2010 Official source
Humidity Average relative humidity in the least humid and the most humid month, 1981–2010.
How this is measured

Mean near-surface relative humidity in the least humid and the most humid MONTH, from the twelve CHELSA V2.1 hurs climatologies over 1981-2010, at 30 arcsec (~1 km), averaged over the town's own stored footprint polygon. The low figure is the least humid month and the high figure is the most humid month: TWO named measures, not a range. Note the window differs from the rainfall and temperature axes, which use a QUARTER - a month is more extreme at both ends, so these figures are not interchangeable with a quarterly one. Modeled climatologies, not a station record, and measured over the footprint rather than the town center.

53.2–62.8 % CHELSA V2.1 hurs, 1981-2010 monthly (~1 km), Karger et al. · figure for 2010 Official source 59.1–63.2 % CHELSA V2.1 hurs, 1981-2010 monthly (~1 km), Karger et al. · figure for 2010 Official source
Safety
Homicide (county figure) Published by province for this country — see the province row
2.8 per 100,000 a year Sarasota County figure
How we know this 95% interval 2.1–3.6 · 2020–2024. Higher than 11% of the 1,214 US counties with 10 or more in 2020–2024. Registered deaths of residents whose underlying cause is assault (ICD-10 X85–Y09 and Y87.1), pooled 2020–2024 · CDC WONDER, Underlying Cause of Death 2018-2024 (Single Race, final), by county of residence · population: CDC WONDER (US Census Bureau estimates), sum of annual populations 2020–2024 · read 2026-09-24
Homicide (province figure)
0.8 per 100,000 a year Málaga province figure
How we know this 95% interval 0.6–1.0 · 2020–2024. Measured for the whole Málaga province, not Estepona alone. Higher than 80% of the 35 Spanish provinces with 10 or more in 2020–2024. Registered deaths of residents whose underlying cause is assault (ICD-10 X85–Y09), pooled 2020–2024 · INE, Estadística de defunciones según la causa de muerte, 099 Agresiones (homicidio), by province of residence · population: INE, Estadística Continua de Población (table 56945), mean of 1 January stocks, 2020–2024 · read 2026-09-24
Published by county for this country — see the county row
Getting care
Minutes to a pharmacy, by road Drive time by road to the nearest pharmacy, searched within 30 km.
How this is measured

Drive time by road to the nearest pharmacy mapped on OpenStreetMap, searched within 30 km — a weekly errand, so a shorter radius than the hospital measure, on purpose. The route starts at the town's own map point (for a US county, the US Census Bureau's internal point of the named town) and follows OpenStreetMap roads (OSRM, driving profile), measured 2026-09-23. The 12 nearest pharmacies in a straight line are routed and the shortest drive wins, ties broken by road distance, so a re-run gives the same answer. A pharmacy more than 2 km from any road is set aside rather than routed to the wrong place. A town with no pharmacy within 30 km carries no figure; the radius is never widened for one town. Source: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via Geofabrik regional extracts.

1.9 min LowestNearest: Farmacia Usero (OpenStreetMap node/10819256726), 0.51 km by road. OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), routed with OSRM · figure for 2026 Open dataset 3.1 min Nearest: Walgreens (OpenStreetMap way/308005837), 1.46 km by road. OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), routed with OSRM · figure for 2026 Open dataset
The country · the same for every town in it, never ranked
Retirement residence route
Visado de residencia no lucrativa (non-lucrative residence visa) Spain · country figure Private health insurance with no co-payments, waiting periods or limits is required; travel insurance is not accepted. Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores (Spain), consular services in the United States: visado de residencia no lucrativa · checked Sep 26, 2026
No retirement residence route United States · country figure No retirement, pension or means-based residence route exists. USCIS lists eight green-card families and none is retirement- or means-based; the only means-based route (EB-5) requires an active investment. USCIS: Green Card Eligibility Categories · checked Sep 26, 2026
Public healthcare
Sistema Nacional de Salud — convenio especial Spain · country figure Open to a non-working resident after one year of continuous effective residence (art. 3.a). Real Decreto 576/2013, convenio especial de prestación de asistencia sanitaria (BOE-A-2013-8190), art. 6.1 · checked Sep 26, 2026
no data Not yet verified for United States.
Public healthcare — cost
USD $175 / month EUR €157 / month · European Central Bank, euro foreign exchange reference rates, 2026-10-30 Spain · country figure Monthly fee to join Spain's public health system through the convenio especial at 65 or over, after a year of residence.
How this is measured

Spain's convenio especial (RD 576/2013 art. 6.1), monthly fee at age 65 or over; available after one year of continuous effective residence (art. 3.a). Autonomous communities may add services and raise the fee for them.

One year of continuous effective residence first, so year one is private insurance only. Real Decreto 576/2013, convenio especial de prestación de asistencia sanitaria (BOE-A-2013-8190), art. 6.1 · checked Sep 26, 2026
USD $203 / month United States · country figure Medicare Part B standard monthly premium per person — doctors and outpatient care, before deductibles and extra cover.
How this is measured

Medicare Part B standard monthly premium, per enrollee, set each year by CMS. It is what a Medicare enrollee pays to be covered for doctors and outpatient care; it EXCLUDES the annual Part B deductible, coinsurance, Part D drug plans and supplemental (Medigap) cover, and higher incomes pay an income-related adjustment on top.

Per enrollee; 2026 Part B deductible USD $283 not included; Part D, Medigap and income-related adjustments not included. CMS, Medicare Part B premium rates 2026 (notice CMS-8091-N, Federal Register) · checked Oct 6, 2026
Currency
Euro Spain · country figure One of the 21 EU countries using the euro. European Union: Countries using the euro · checked Sep 28, 2026
US dollar; the US intervenes in currency markets only on occasion United States · country figure Federal Reserve Bank of New York: "since the mid-1990s, the U.S. has only intervened in FX markets on occasion", at the direction of the FOMC or the Treasury; its quarterly reports record no intervention in the first or second quarter of 2026. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Foreign Exchange Operations · checked Sep 29, 2026
Senior discounts
Rail only: Renfe Tarjeta Dorada, age 60 and over Spain · country figure A product of Renfe, the state rail operator, not a statutory scheme: Renfe's page sets age 60 as its only condition. Regional and municipal transport concessions are set locally, not nationally. Renfe, Descuentos mayores de 60 (Tarjeta Dorada) · checked Sep 29, 2026
no data Not yet verified for United States.
Prices against the world average: FoodHow the country's prices for food compare with the world average (World = 100) — World Bank price survey, 2021; a national figure.
How this is measured

World Bank ICP 2021 price level index for Food: World = 100, at 2021 prices and 2021 market exchange rates — a national figure, never a town's.

115.5 Spain · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
117.5 United States · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
Prices against the world average: Housing, water, electricity and gasHow the country's prices for housing, water, electricity and gas compare with the world average (World = 100) — World Bank price survey, 2021; a national figure.
How this is measured

World Bank ICP 2021 price level index for Housing, water, electricity and gas: World = 100, at 2021 prices and 2021 market exchange rates — a national figure, never a town's.

148.5 Spain · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
214.6 United States · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
Prices against the world average: HealthHow the country's prices for health compare with the world average (World = 100) — World Bank price survey, 2021; a national figure.
How this is measured

World Bank ICP 2021 price level index for Health: World = 100, at 2021 prices and 2021 market exchange rates — a national figure, never a town's. Includes services the government provides, so it is not an out-of-pocket price.

122.8 Spain · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
207.9 United States · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
Prices against the world average: TransportHow the country's prices for transport compare with the world average (World = 100) — World Bank price survey, 2021; a national figure.
How this is measured

World Bank ICP 2021 price level index for Transport: World = 100, at 2021 prices and 2021 market exchange rates — a national figure, never a town's.

131.4 Spain · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
116.0 United States · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
Prices against the world average: Restaurants and hotelsHow the country's prices for restaurants and hotels compare with the world average (World = 100) — World Bank price survey, 2021; a national figure.
How this is measured

World Bank ICP 2021 price level index for Restaurants and hotels: World = 100, at 2021 prices and 2021 market exchange rates — a national figure, never a town's.

111.1 Spain · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
142.0 United States · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
Prices against the world average: CommunicationHow the country's prices for communication compare with the world average (World = 100) — World Bank price survey, 2021; a national figure.
How this is measured

World Bank ICP 2021 price level index for Communication: World = 100, at 2021 prices and 2021 market exchange rates — a national figure, never a town's.

145.5 Spain · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
224.0 United States · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
Prices against the world average: Clothing and footwearHow the country's prices for clothing and footwear compare with the world average (World = 100) — World Bank price survey, 2021; a national figure.
How this is measured

World Bank ICP 2021 price level index for Clothing and footwear: World = 100, at 2021 prices and 2021 market exchange rates — a national figure, never a town's.

117.4 Spain · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
122.8 United States · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
Prices against the world average: Overall averageHow the country's prices for everything a household consumes compare with the world average (World = 100) — World Bank price survey, 2021; a national figure.
How this is measured

World Bank ICP 2021 price level index for Everything a household consumes (overall average): World = 100, at 2021 prices and 2021 market exchange rates — a national figure, never a town's. Includes services the government provides; the categories above say more than this average.

117.3 Spain · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
159.1 United States · country figure World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021 (CC BY 4.0) · checked Sep 26, 2026
Electricity (reference bill) — SpainA monthly electricity bill at a fixed 250 kWh, from the national household price (Eurostat), taxes included.
How this is measured

Household electricity price from Eurostat nrg_pc_204, consumption band DC (2,500–4,999 kWh/year), all taxes and levies included, in EUR per kWh. Rendered as a monthly bill at a REFERENCE consumption of 250 kWh/month — a fixed comparison level, NOT a claim about what a household uses — with one dated conversion into the reader's own currency. A national figure for the country; Spain and Portugal use the same EU-harmonised definition.

USD $70 / month EUR €63 / month · European Central Bank, euro foreign exchange reference rates, 2026-10-30 Spain · country figure Eurostat, electricity prices for household consumers (nrg_pc_204), band DC (2,500–4,999 kWh/yr), all taxes · checked Oct 7, 2026
no data Not this country's measurement
Electricity (reference bill) — United StatesA monthly electricity bill at a fixed 250 kWh, from the state's average residential price (US EIA).
How this is measured

Average residential electricity price from the US EIA, by state, in USD per kWh (all residential customers; no consumption tier and no climate assignment — a different construction from the EU band figure). Rendered as a monthly bill at a REFERENCE consumption of 250 kWh/month, a national figure for the state; US states are comparable among themselves.

no data Not this country's measurement
USD $38 / month Florida · state figure US EIA, average residential electricity price by state (retail-sales, annual average) · checked Oct 7, 2026
The place itself
Elevation range The lowest and highest ground in the town's area, from a satellite elevation model.
How this is measured

Ground elevation from the Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (~30 m, EPSG:4326, ESA/Copernicus, 2021 release), computed over the town's own stored footprint polygon. Low and high are the minimum and maximum cell values inside that polygon. Two caveats travel with every figure: the figure describes the FOOTPRINT, not the town center, so a municipio-level footprint reads higher than a published town elevation wherever the surrounding land rises; and GLO-30 is a surface model, so dense canopy or buildings can lift the maximum a few meters above bare ground.

-1–1,438 m Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (~30 m), ESA / Copernicus · figure for 2021 Official source -7–46 m Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (~30 m), ESA / Copernicus · figure for 2021 Official source
Steepness How steep the ground is across the town's area (10th to 90th percentile slope), from a satellite elevation model.
How this is measured

Ground slope from the Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (~30 m, EPSG:4326, ESA/Copernicus, 2021 release), computed over the town's own stored footprint polygon. Low and high are the 10th and 90th percentiles of per-cell slope inside that polygon — not the minimum and maximum, because over any real footprint the minimum is 0° and the maximum is a single cliff cell. THE BASELINE IS PART OF THE MEASUREMENT: the elevation grid is averaged to a ~90 m post before differencing, and a figure taken over a different baseline is a different measurement. Three caveats travel with every figure: it describes the FOOTPRINT, so a municipio-level footprint takes in surrounding hills the town itself is not built on; GLO-30 is a SURFACE model, so canopy and buildings are in it; and the DEM's own vertical noise puts a floor of roughly 0.5° under the figure on near-level ground, which is artefact rather than terrain. The floor shifts every town's figure in the same direction and does not reorder them — a flat town measures about a quarter of a gently rolling one at every baseline tested.

2.63–25.61 degrees Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (~30 m), ESA / Copernicus — slope over a ~90 m baseline · figure for 2021 Official source 0.01–1.85 degrees Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (~30 m), ESA / Copernicus — slope over a ~90 m baseline · figure for 2021 Official source
People in this area How many people live inside the town's area, estimated the same way in every country from satellite and census data.
How this is measured

Resident population inside the town's own stored footprint polygon, from GHS-POP E2020 R2023A (~100 m, EPSG:4326, European Commission JRC). MODELED, NOT COUNTED: GHS-POP distributes national census counts across the built-up surface detected from satellite imagery, so it is an estimate of how many people live inside a shape, never a head count. What it buys in exchange is that it is computed identically in every country, which no census is — two national censuses share a definition only by coincidence. Cells on the boundary are weighted by the fraction of each one inside the polygon, so a small footprint is not rounded up or down by its own edge. THE FIGURE DESCRIBES THE FOOTPRINT, and for a town whose footprint is a settlement rather than a municipality that is a much smaller area than the one an official population refers to — which is the point of publishing it. Checked against the stored census figure for all 63 towns that carry one: the median difference is 5.5% for a municipality footprint and 8.7% for a municipio, and 57.6% for a settlement, where the two figures are correctly describing different places.

59838 people GHS-POP E2020 R2023A (~100 m), European Commission JRC — modelled, summed over the town footprint · figure for 2020 Official source 436665 people GHS-POP E2020 R2023A (~100 m), European Commission JRC — modelled, summed over the town footprint · figure for 2020 Official source
Distance to the sea The shortest distance from the town's area to the sea; lakes and rivers do not count.
How this is measured

Shortest distance from any point of the town's own stored footprint polygon to the ocean shoreline, measured geodesically. The shoreline is OpenStreetMap's natural=coastline, which is mean high water; LAKES AND RIVERS ARE EXCLUDED, so a town on a lakeshore carries its distance to the sea rather than zero. THE FIGURE DESCRIBES THE FOOTPRINT, not the town center: a municipio whose boundary reaches the coast reads a smaller number than its built-up area would, and a municipio whose center is coastal but whose boundary is not reads zero. Zero means the footprint touches the shoreline. The nearest candidate is found in a local equirectangular frame and the winning pair of points is then re-measured with the haversine formula, so the published figure does not carry the projection's error. Nearer the sea is neither better nor worse — it is beach, humidity, salt and storm exposure together — so no figure on this axis is ever ranked.

reaches the coast OpenStreetMap coastline (natural=coastline), ODbL 1.0 — geodesic distance from the town footprint · figure for 2026 Open dataset reaches the coast OpenStreetMap coastline (natural=coastline), ODbL 1.0 — geodesic distance from the town footprint · figure for 2026 Open dataset
Kind of place Whether the town is a city, a town or suburb, or rural, on the international Degree of Urbanisation standard — judged by where its people live.
How this is measured

What kind of place the town is — City, Town or suburb, or Rural — on the Degree of Urbanisation (DEGURBA) standard, from GHS-SMOD E2020 R2023A (~1 km, European Commission JRC). THE PLACE IS CLASSED BY WHERE ITS PEOPLE LIVE, NOT WHERE ITS LAND IS: every ~100 m population cell inside the town's own footprint is charged to the settlement class it falls inside, and the class holding the majority of the footprint's population is the answer. That is why a large municipio containing a city reads City rather than Rural. WHERE NO CLASS HOLDS A MAJORITY THE TOWN CARRIES NO FIGURE AT ALL, because a single word that is untrue of most of the people it describes is worse than a blank; three of the 74 towns are genuinely mixed in this way. THE FIGURE DESCRIBES THE FOOTPRINT, so a municipio whose historic center is a town but whose surrounding population is rural can read Rural — the area being measured is stated beside the figure for exactly this reason. Both the settlement grid and the population weighting are modeled from satellite imagery and census disaggregation, not surveyed. No class is better than another, so nothing on this axis is ever ranked.

Town or suburb GHS-SMOD E2020 R2023A (degree of urbanisation), European Commission JRC — population-weighted over the town footprint · figure for 2020 Official source Town or suburb GHS-SMOD E2020 R2023A (degree of urbanisation), European Commission JRC — population-weighted over the town footprint · figure for 2020 Official source
Air quality (PM2.5) Yearly average fine-particle air pollution (PM2.5) in 2024, modeled from satellite data and weighted to where people live in the town.
How this is measured

Annual mean fine particulate matter (PM2.5) for 2024, in micrograms per cubic meter, from SatPM2.5 V6.GL.03 (~1 km, Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group, Washington University in St. Louis). MODELED, NOT MEASURED AT THE TOWN: satellite aerosol optical depth from MODIS, VIIRS, MISR and SeaWiFS is combined with a GEOS-Chem chemical-transport simulation and calibrated against ground monitors. There is no monitor in most of these towns, which is why a global model is the only way to compare them at all — and why this figure is comparable across a border where two national monitoring networks would not be. THE FIGURE IS POPULATION-WEIGHTED OVER THE TOWN'S OWN FOOTPRINT, not a plain average of the area: people are concentrated where the air is worst, so an areal mean would flatter any municipio that contains a city. Measured on this data, the two differ by about a fifth for a municipio containing a city and not at all for a settlement footprint. FOR SCALE, AND IT IS A PUBLISHED RULE RATHER THAN OUR JUDGEMENT: the World Health Organization's 2021 air quality guideline for annual mean PM2.5 is 5 micrograms per cubic meter, and its interim targets are 35, 25, 15 and 10. Cleaner air is better without qualification, so unlike the other figures measured over the footprint this one is ranked.

10.4 µg/m³ SatPM2.5 V6.GL.03 (~1 km), ACAG / Washington University in St. Louis - 2024 annual mean, population-weighted · figure for 2024 Official source 8.3 µg/m³ Lowest SatPM2.5 V6.GL.03 (~1 km), ACAG / Washington University in St. Louis - 2024 annual mean, population-weighted · figure for 2024 Official source
Getting there
Getting there GIB Drive to GIB: 45 min Nearest listed destination: Lisbon 444 km / 276 mi · ~1h 15m est. flight Drive measured by road (OurAirports (public domain) and OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), routed with OSRM) · flight a straight line · OurAirports (public domain dataset) · 2026-08-14 SRQ Drive to SRQ: 11 min Nearest listed destination: Miami 287 km / 178 mi · ~1h est. flight Drive measured by road (OurAirports (public domain) and OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), routed with OSRM) · flight a straight line · OurAirports (public domain dataset) · 2026-08-14

Official data is dated; curated figures are labeled estimates. Not forecasts — verify current figures locally.

Cite this

Source: ExpatAlmanac, "Comparison: Estepona vs Sarasota (Sarasota County)", https://expatalmanac.com/compare/towns/es-estepona-vs-us-sarasota, figures as of 2010; original data: SERPAVI 2024, Ministerio de Vivienda y Agenda Urbana, from AEAT tax declarations; Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), smoothed, all homes, county; US Census Bureau, ACS 5-year, B25058 median contract rent, county; HUD Fair Market Rents, FY2026 (1-bedroom, county-exact); CHELSA V2.1 bio10/bio11, 1981-2010 (~1 km), Karger et al.; CHELSA V2.1 bio16/bio17, 1981-2010 (~1 km), Karger et al.; CHELSA V2.1 hurs, 1981-2010 monthly (~1 km), Karger et al.; OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), routed with OSRM; Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (~30 m), ESA / Copernicus; Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (~30 m), ESA / Copernicus — slope over a ~90 m baseline; GHS-POP E2020 R2023A (~100 m), European Commission JRC — modelled, summed over the town footprint; OpenStreetMap coastline (natural=coastline), ODbL 1.0 — geodesic distance from the town footprint; GHS-SMOD E2020 R2023A (degree of urbanisation), European Commission JRC — population-weighted over the town footprint; SatPM2.5 V6.GL.03 (~1 km), ACAG / Washington University in St. Louis - 2024 annual mean, population-weighted.

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Unlimited reports, up to six places each, and it carries into the resident plan when you move.

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Reports open when the site launches.

The report starts from the same sourced figures you see here, then adds clearly labeled estimates for the costs no official source prices for each town.