Barcelona remains Europe's third top city for startups 

Barcelona remains Europe's third favorite city to locate a startup, according to the StartUp Heatmap Europe Report 2023, the sixth year in a row that the Catalan capital has come third in the ranking, behind London and Berlin. 

It is just one of the many accolades named in Barcelona City Council's annual 'Barcelona in Figures' report for 2023, covering business, entrepreneurship, digital talent and other strategic sectors. 

Barcelona was named eighth in the world ranking of most attractive cities for visitors and entrepreneurs, according to the World's Best Cities Report, and fourth best city in the world for organizing international congresses in 2022, according to International Congress and Convention Association. 

The city was named the fourth city in the Top 100 emerging ecosystems in the world, according to The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2023 from Startup Genome, recognized as the ninth most attractive city for digital talent and tenth most attractive for digital experts. 

Barcelona was also awarded the European Entrepreneurial Region Award in 2023, an annual award from the European Union's Committee of the Regions which recognizes entrepreneurship and resilience. 

The award praised Barcelona's Green Deal, integrated into the urban and economic agenda, the city council said. 

Cosmopolitan and diverse 

"The cosmopolitan, diverse and intercultural spirit of Barcelona is reflected in the fact that 23.6% of the city's population are foreign nationals – its highest percentage on record," the report said, adding that the city is the "driving force of a large, diversified economic area." 

More than half of the jobs in Barcelona (56.7%) correspond to knowledge-intensive activities. 

Catalonia 

Catalonia has the most startup companies in Spain (22.9%), accounting for more than a quarter (26.4%) of all spending on startups.

Between 2018 and 2022, Catalonia was the leading destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in Spain, with 953 projects, an invested capital of €20.3 billion and 80,932 jobs created, according to a report by ACCIO based on data from fDI Markets (Financial Times Group).