Some 49.2% of people value municipal management as good or very good, with a seven per cent increase compared to the last barometer. Negative opinions came out at 32.1%, nearly five per cent lower and the lowest figure since 2018.

The positive trend continues among people in the city, with more people believing that Barcelona has improved in the last year and a drop in critical voices. To a large extent, this trend can be explained by the improvement in the perception of security, which is no longer people’s main concern, dropping from 28.9% to 23.1%.

Housing tops the list of concerns among people, with 29.9% of replies, slightly more than one per cent up compared to the survey six months ago. Tourism is in third position with 9.8% of replies, below the 13% from a year ago. Just 5.1% of people regard cleaning as the main problem in the city, in line with the favourable trend in barometers in recent years.

Some 45.5% of those surveyed gave a positive assessment of the city’s economic evolution in the past year. There is also mainly a favourable perception of the domestic economy: 63.3% of people made a positive assessment of the economic situation in their household, while 15.4% considered it bad or very bad.

Current topics: anti-social behaviour and information on politics

As ever, the barometer asks members of the public about topics of special interest, in this case anti-social behaviour and information on politics.

Some 47.3% of those surveyed believe that anti-social behaviour is a serious problem, with 36.1% defining it as very serious. As for solutions, some 33.5% feel tougher fines are needed for anti-social behaviour, 29.4% believe that more surveillance is required and 19% would like to see more awareness campaigns.

As for the interest in politics, around 54% of people surveyed stated they take an interest in the policies pursued by the various institutions. Nearly 70% usually or often get their information informally from friends or family. Television (63.5%), newspapers (59.5%), social media (53.9%) and the radio (51.9%) are the other usual sources of information and are used by over half those surveyed.

Involvement in associations is low, from 29.1% in sports, culture or leisure associations, to 13.5% in residents’ associations, 13.2% in student parent associations and 11.6% in political associations. Religious associations have the lowest rate of involvement in terms of members, at 3.7%.

Ratings for political leaders

The Mayor, Jaume Collboni, is the only municipal figure to gain approval in this edition of the barometer, with a score of 5.1. The rest of the representatives from municipal groups were rated as follows: Elisenda Alamany, 4.9; Jordi Martí Galbis, 4.8; Janet Sanz, 4.3; Daniel Sirera, 3.2, and Gonzalo de Oro-Pulido, 2.3.

Direct voting intention for the PSC stands at 16.1%, followed by Barcelona en Comú, (7.9%), ERC (7.5%), Trias per BCN- Junts (4%), CUP (2.7%), PP (2.4%) and Vox (1.9%).

The barometer is a six-monthly survey included in the Sociological Studies Plan and is based on telephone interviews with 800 people in Barcelona with the right to vote in municipal elections. The results from the latest edition of the barometer can be found here.