Ourense is a medium-sized city in the Northwest of Spain, next to Portugal’s borders. It is located in the confluence of rivers Miño and Barbaña. The urbanised high density downtown is surrounded by a peri-urban zone plenty of forest areas. Natural city borderline are mountains covered by chestnut trees, pines and eucalyptus. Those lands are currently not exploited.

The city is the district capital and the third one of Galicia Region. It holds 32,41% of all district population. Because of its location, it is the natural communication path between Galicia and the rest of Spain. This situation is expected to be reinforced when high speed train development works in connection with Spain Capital will be finished.

Most remarkable and economic potential in Ourense is its thermals. With more than 5 million liters water running from several hot springs, Ourense has turned to be the second city of Europe in quantity of thermal water.

The 108.002 inhabitants of the city are part of a mainly elderly population with a middle age of 44 years old: “under 15” are 12,75%, “16-64” are about 64,9% and “more than 65” are 22,3% of the population. Ourense holds almost 42.000 dwellings, 18% of them are single-family houses (7.585). A 33% of population (13.838 dwellings) has terrace, yard, patio, garden or allotment. 25,48% of population comply about not having good access to leisure areas (open and closed ones). On population distribution, it can be noticed that 6,5% of population lives in peri-urban fringe.

78% of the working population work in services. One of the most significant data about Ourense is its unemployment rate, which reaches 36% on total and 53% on youth. Those figures are directly connected with a strong migratory movement. In 2010, Ourense net migration rate was 6,34. Consequently, Ourense is characterized by a standstill or even negative growth tendency.