Barcelona today
With 1.68 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area of 5.4 million, Barcelona is today a cultural and congress capital, southern Europe's leading tech hub and home of the Mobile World Congress. The decade's big urban debate is the balance between visitors and residents.
Congress and startup city
The Fira and the Mobile World Congress fill the city every year, and Poblenou's 22@ district concentrates the tech scene: the factory became office, lab and datacenter.
The tourism debate
With millions of yearly visitors, the city limits hotel and tourist-flat licenses and fights center gentrification: the conscious visitor appreciates it — and notices it in the price of coffee.
World Capital of Architecture 2024-26
UNESCO and the UIA named it World Capital of Architecture for 2024-2026, with the 2026 world architects' congress as the closing event: the city keeps thinking its own urbanism.