Spain LGBT Equality Index

The most LGBT-friendly places in Spain

Equality Index ?

83 / 100

Legal Rights

100 / 100

Public Opinion

67 / 100

The Equality Index measures the current status of LGBT rights, laws, and freedoms as well as public attitudes towards LGBT people.

Equality Index?

0 (Less Equal)

100 (More Equal)

Spain Equality Index

Which countries are the most LGBT-friendly? The Legal Index scores the legal rights and freedoms LGBTQ+ people have while the Public Opinion Index scores how the general public feels in each region.

	Equality Index	Legal Index	Public Opinion Index
1. A Coruña	100	100	—
2. Albacete	100	100	—
3. Alicante	100	100	—
4. Almería	100	100	—
5. Andalucía	100	100	—
6. Asturias	100	100	—
7. Badajoz	100	100	—
8. Baleares	100	100	—
9. Barcelona	100	100	—
10. Burgos	100	100	—
11. Canarias	100	100	—
12. Cantabria	100	100	—
13. Castellón	100	100	—
14. Ceuta	100	100	—
15. Ciudad Real	100	100	—
16. Cuenca	100	100	—
17. Cáceres	100	100	—
18. Cádiz	100	100	—
19. Córdoba	100	100	—
20. Girona	100	100	—
21. Granada	100	100	—
22. Guadalajara	100	100	—
23. Guipúzcoa	100	100	—
24. Huelva	100	100	—
25. Huesca	100	100	—
26. Jaén	100	100	—
27. La Rioja	100	100	—
28. Las Palmas	100	100	—
29. León	100	100	—
30. Lleida	100	100	—
31. Lugo	100	100	—
32. Madrid	100	100	—
33. Melilla	100	100	—
34. Murcia	100	100	—
35. Málaga	100	100	—
36. Navarra	100	100	—
37. Ourense	100	100	—
38. Palencia	100	100	—
39. Pontevedra	100	100	—
40. Salamanca	100	100	—
41. Santa Cruz de Tenerife	100	100	—
42. Segovia	100	100	—
43. Sevilla	100	100	—
44. Soria	100	100	—
45. Tarragona	100	100	—
46. Teruel	100	100	—
47. Toledo	100	100	—
48. Valencia	100	100	—
49. Valladolid	100	100	—
50. Vizcaya	100	100	—
51. Zamora	100	100	—
52. Zaragoza	100	100	—
53. Álava	100	100	—
54. Ávila	100	100	—
55. Asturias, Principado de	100	100	—
56. Cantabria	100	100	—
57. Castilla-La Mancha	100	100	—
58. Catalunya	100	100	—
59. Extremadura	100	100	—
60. Galicia	100	100	—
61. Illes Balears	100	100	—
62. Madrid, Comunidad de	100	100	—
63. Murcia, Región de	100	100	—
64. Navarra, Comunidad Foral de	100	100	—
65. País Vasco	100	100	—
66. Valenciana, Comunidad	100	100	—
67. Aragón	100	100	—
68. La Rioja	100	100	—
69. Castilla y León	99	99	—

Equality Index Methodology

Equaldex's Equality Index is a rating from 0 to 100 (with 100 being the most equal) to help visualize the legal rights and public attitudes towards LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex...) people in each region. The Equality Index is an average of two indexes: the legal index and the public opinion Index.

Equality Index

Average of Legal Index and Public Opinion Index

Legal Index

The LGBT legal index measures the current legal status of 13 different issues ranging from the legal status of homosexuality, same-sex marriage, transgender rights, LGBT discrimination protections, LGBT censorship laws, and more. Each topic is weighted differently (for example, if same-sex marriage is illegal in a region, it would have a much bigger impact on the score than not allowing LGBT people to serve in the military). Each topic is assigned a "total possible score" and a "score" is assigned based the status of the law using a rating scale that ranges from 0% to 100% (for example, if homosexuality is legal, it would would receive a score of 100, but if it's illegal, it would receve a score of 0.)

If the status of an issue is unknown, not applicable, or no data has not been added to Equaldex, the issue's score is completely discarded and not included in the ranking. In cases where a law varies throughout a region (for example, a country where same-sex marriage is legal in some states or provinces but not others), the score is averaged among all states or provinces, weighted equally.

Past laws that are no longer in effect do not impact the region's current score. New laws that have not gone into effect yet will not impact the region's score until the day it goes into effect.

Legal Index

(Total Possible Score for each issue × Factor of Status of Issue) / Sum of all Total Possible Scores

Show Scoring

Issue	Total Possible Score	Status	Factor
Homosexual activity	100	Legal	×1.00
		Male illegal, female uncertain	×0.20
		Male illegal, female legal	×0.20
		Illegal (other penalty)	×0.15
		Illegal (imprisonment as punishment)	×0.10
		Illegal (up to life in prison as punishment)	×0.05
		Illegal (death penalty as punishment)	×0.00
Same-sex marriage	60	Legal	×1.00
		Civil unions (marriage rights)	×0.80
		Civil unions (limited rights)	×0.70
		Other type of partnership	×0.50
		Foreign same-sex marriages recognized only	×0.40
		Unregistered cohabitation	×0.30
		Unrecognized	×0.10
		Banned	×0.00
Censorship of LGBT issues	40	No censorship	×1.00
		State-enforced	×0.30
		Fine as punishment	×0.20
		Other punishment	×0.10
		Imprisonment as punishment	×0.05
		Death penalty as punishment	×0.00
Right to change legal gender	40	Legal, no restrictions	×1.00
		Legal, but requires medical diagnosis	×0.70
		Legal, but requires surgery	×0.40
		Illegal	×0.00
Gender-affirming care	20	Legal	×1.00
		Legal, but restricted for minors	×0.70
		Legal, but banned for minors	×0.50
		Restricted	×0.30
		Banned	×0.00
Legal recognition of non-binary gender	30	Recognized	×1.00
		Intersex only	×0.70
		Not legally recognized	×0.00
Hate crime protections	40	Sexual orientation and gender identity	×1.00
		Sexual orientation only	×0.50
		Protected in some contexts	×0.30
		No protections	×0.00
LGBT discrimination	20	Illegal	×1.00
		Illegal in some contexts	×0.50
		No protections	×0.00
LGBT employment discrimination	20	Sexual orientation and gender identity	×1.00
		Gender identity only	×0.50
		Sexual orientation only	×0.50
		No protections	×0.00
LGBT housing discrimination	20	Sexual orientation and gender identity	×1.00
		Sexual orientation only	×0.50
		Gender identity only	×0.50
		No protections	×0.00
Same-sex adoption	20	Legal	×1.00
		Married couples only	×0.50
		Second parent adoption only	×0.40
		Single only	×0.20
		Illegal	×0.00
Intersex infant surgery	20	Full ban	×1.00
		Parental approval required	×0.30
		Not banned	×0.00
Serving openly in military	20	Legal	×1.00
		Lesbians, gays, bisexuals permitted, transgender people banned	×0.70
		Don't Ask, Don't Tell	×0.50
		Illegal	×0.00
Blood donations by MSMs	10	Legal	×1.00
		Legal with restrictions	×0.80
		Banned (less than 6-month deferral)	×0.30
		Banned (6-month deferral)	×0.20
		Banned (1-year deferral)	×0.15
		Banned (5-year deferral)	×0.10
		Banned (indefinite deferral)	×0.00
Bathroom access	20	Protected	×1.00
		No explicit protections	×0.80
		Partially restricted	×0.50
		Restricted	×0.20
		Restricted (enforced with penalties or fines)	×0.00
Conversion therapy	10	Banned	×1.00
		Sexual orientation only	×0.50
		Not banned	×0.00
Equal age of consent	10	Equal	×1.00
		Female equal, male N/A	×0.75
		Female equal, male unequal	×0.50
		Unequal	×0.00

Public Opinion Index

The LGBT public opinion index measures the public attitudes towards LGBT people using surveys and polls from reputable organizations. This index is scored based on averaging the results of all surveys in a given region. Generally, the value averaged is usually the most "equal" response in the poll. For example, if a poll asked "Do you support same-sex marriage?" and 56% of people said "yes", the value "56" would be used. In some cases, a survey may be weighted less if the survey is very specific or includes a specific group of people (such as Christians) and might not be a full representation of the overall attitudes of the region.

To better represent current attitudes, surveys are scored using a time-decay weighting method based on the date published. This means that the most recent surveys carry more weight in the public opinion index. Surveys from the current year and the previous year receive full weight. However, for surveys older than two years, an exponential decay of 75% applies each year. This weight decay ensures that the public opinion index is always most influenced by the most recent data, reflecting evolving public attitudes, while still taking into account older surveys to maintain a comprehensive overview. This change went into effect on July 21, 2023.

Note that public opinion data is not available in every region. In these cases, the Equality Index will only be a representation of the legal rights of LGBT people in the region. Additionally, some regions have no recent public opinion data available, so older data is used to score the region.

Public Opinion Index

(Survey Results Value × Survey Weight × Time Decay Factor) / (Survey Weight × Time Decay Factor)

Show Survey Time Decay

Year Survey Published	Time Decay Factor
2026 (current year)	0.75⁰	1
2025	0.75⁰	1
2024	0.75¹	0.75
2023	0.75²	0.5625
2022	0.75³	0.421875
2021	0.75⁴	0.31640625
2020	0.75⁵	0.2373046875
2019	0.75⁶	0.177978515625
2018	0.75⁷	0.13348388671875
2017	0.75⁸	0.10011291503906
2016	0.75⁹	0.075084686279297
(etc.)

Notes

Equaldex's Equality Index is constantly being improved and tracking it over time may not represent changes in equality over time. As more data is contributed to Equaldex, the index becomes more accurate. For example, adding survey results to a region will likely change the region's Equality Index — even more so if there is limited data on the region. In this case, the change in score could represent a change in attitudes in the region, but it may also just be an increase in the index's accuracy.
Global opinion surveys rarely include transgender topics. Especially in more conservative regions, surveys are usually limited to homosexuality or same-sex marriage. Equaldex continues to seek more international transgender public opinion data to make the Equality Index more inclusive.
Regions are ranked based on their raw, unrounded Equality Index scores, but rounded values are used for simplicity.
The model for the Equality Index is evolving, and adjustments to weights and other parameters are likely as we continue to improve its accuracy and relevance.
The Equality Index is updated automatically as data is added to Equaldex and as new laws go into effect. When a new law or survey is added to Equaldex, the index will recalculate within a few hours.