Where are the Balearic Islands? Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera

Ibiza, Mallorca (also spelled Majorca), Menorca and Formentera are Spanish islands in the Mediterranean Sea, off Spain's east coast. Together they are the Balearic Islands, one of Spain's autonomous communities, and none of them is a country of its own. Palma, the capital, is 206 km from Barcelona and 260 km from Valencia.

Is Ibiza a country?

No. The first article of the islands' statute of autonomy, a Spanish law of 2007, gives the answer: Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera form an autonomous community under Spain's Constitution. Its official name is Illes Balears.

Article 2 draws the territory: Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Formentera and Cabrera, plus the smaller islands around them. Under article 7 the capital is Palma, on Mallorca. Each island also has its own governing body, the island council (article 8).

What the islands do have is their own flag and their own day, 1 March (article 6), and a second official language: Catalan, alongside Spanish (article 4). None of that makes them a country. The statute in Spain's official gazette.

Inside Spain the islands are a single province. The census registers all 12 of our island places in the same one, Illes Balears.

The island's main town is also called Ibiza. On our pages it is «Ibiza (Eivissa)», and the national register of municipalities lists it in Catalan as «Eivissa». Why Mallorca is also spelled Majorca is covered in a separate guide.

Which island is where

This is a diagram, not a map. Blue dots are our places on the islands; dark dots are three mainland towns for reference. Small dots are bathing points from the European register: they sit along the shore and trace both the islands and the mainland opposite.

• Palma de Mallorca is 206 km south of Barcelona and 260 km east of Valencia. Madrid is 548 km away.
• Menorca: Ciutadella de Menorca to Barcelona is 209 km. The closest pair of our places on Mallorca and Menorca, Alcúdia and Ciutadella de Menorca, are 63 km apart.
• Ibiza is the closest to the mainland: the shortest island-to-mainland pair in our base is Sant Josep de sa Talaia to Jávea / Xàbia, 99 km. Ibiza (Eivissa) to Valencia is 167 km; to Palma de Mallorca, 129 km.
• Formentera to Ibiza (Eivissa): 22 km.
• End to end, our island places span 279 km, from Formentera to Es Castell.

Palma de Mallorca sits almost level with Valencia, just 11 km further north. The northernmost of our island places is Ciutadella de Menorca, at 40.0°; Barcelona is at 41.4°. All distances here are straight lines between coordinates; Madrid's coordinate comes from Spain's National Geographic Institute. The Madrid record.

Island by island

Residents are from the 2025 census and cover only the municipalities in our base, not the whole island. «January» is how many cafés, hotels and shops operate in January against the year's peak. «Excellent» counts bathing points with the top grade in the 2025 season. The bathing register treats Ibiza and Formentera as one area.

Residents: 2025 census, National Statistics Institute. January: social security, 2025.

• Palma de Mallorca has 443,196 residents by the census, more than our other 11 island places together (291,187).
• Santa Eulària des Riu: 30.8 % of residents hold a foreign passport, the highest share among our island places.
• Formentera: in our base it is tied to Ibiza airport on the neighbouring island, 75 minutes away.
• Es Castell on Menorca is the easternmost place in our whole base.

Alike in summer, apart in winter

Winter lifewinter liveabilityA 1-to-5 score of whether a town lives from November to March. Computed from state data: how many cafés, hotels and shops operate in January compared with the summer peak.Why it matters. Most resorts shut for winter. Tourists never notice; someone who moved gets four empty months. A few villages inside another municipality have no state figure of their own — there the score is our estimate, and it is labelled so. is measured from Spain's monthly social security data: how many cafés, hotels and shops operate in January compared with the busiest month of 2025. In summer the islands look alike: for all 12 of our island places the busiest month is June, July or August.

January sets them apart. Palma de Mallorca keeps 91 % of its peak. Formentera keeps 30 %, the lowest January share of any place in our base with its own figure. The other 10 range from 41 to 70 %.

For scale: across 99 mainland places with their own figure the median is 90 %, and on the Canaries no such place falls below 95 %. The capital keeps its own life all year; the rest of the islands follow the holiday calendar.

Spanish social security, 2025. «Winter» is our 1-to-5 score, computed from the same January share.

The sea, month by month

The sea stays at 20 °C or warmer for 5 to 6 months a year around the islands, against 5 at both Barcelona and Valencia. The warmest month is August: 27.1 °C at Palma.

In winter the islands are barely warmer than the mainland. In February the water at our island places is 14.2 to 14.8 °C, against 14.1 at Valencia and 13.4 at Barcelona. The Canaries have 18.6 to 19.8 °C in the same month.

Average water temperature, °C, over 2015–2024, NOAA satellite series. The island columns are Palma de Mallorca, Ciutadella de Menorca and Ibiza (Eivissa). In blue: 20 °C and above. More in the sea temperature dataset.

Water at the beaches

The European Environment Agency grades every bathing point from samples over four seasons, so a grade moves slowly. In the 2025 season the islands had 191 points in the register, and 133 were excellent: 70 %. Across Spain the share is 91 %; on the Canaries, 96 %.

• Mallorca: 77 of 113 excellent, 68 %. Poor: 3 points, at Playa D’Albercuix Port de Pollenca (2 points) and Playa Cala Egos.
• Menorca: 24 of 30 excellent, 80 %. No point is graded poor.
• Ibiza and Formentera: 32 of 48 excellent, 67 %. No point is graded poor.

Poor is the lowest grade on the European scale. The beaches of our places on the islands, with their grade for each season, are in our bathing water dataset. Every point on the islands is in the agency's data.

Short answers

Further

Every island place, with full data, is on the coast pages: Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. Winter for every place in our base is in the winter openness dataset; the «what is open this month» tool is here.

The water beach by beach is in our pieces on Mallorca's beaches and on Ibiza and Formentera beaches. Winter by jobs, rent and prices on two of the islands are in our comparison of Mallorca and Menorca.

Read next

Cost of living in Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza: spending, rent and pay from government data

Spain's minimum wage and average salary in 2026, with sources — and what rent takes on the coast

Menorca's beaches by water quality: excellent across the island, except near Ciutadella