Quick answer: Glassdoor's Spain average for Registered Nurses is €29,659 a year (27 salaries, November 2026), PayScale's Spain average base salary is €35,608 a year, and Madrid public primary-care nurses earn €28,129 a year on the 2026 SERMAS scale. This Nurse Salary in Spain guide separates survey averages from public-sector scales, because they measure different things.
Nurse Salary in Spain — Pay by Sector, Region and Source
Nurse Salary in Spain pay has to be read in two worlds at once: survey averages from nurses reporting their own pay, and public-sector scales that fix pay post by post. A survey average mixes public and private employers, regions, and shift patterns. A public scale states exactly what one post in one region pays, before seniority and on-call duty. This guide never blends the two into one figure.
All figures in this Nurse Salary in Spain guide are gross annual salaries in euros, before social security and income tax, unless explicitly labelled net or total compensation. Public-sector monthly figures are gross monthly amounts on the scale quoted; many Spanish contracts pay in 14 instalments, with two extra payments, so a monthly figure divided by 12 is not the same as the scale's monthly amount. The figures are the latest 2026 benchmarks at writing; no published 2027 pay scale is quoted, and anything about 2027 is outlook only.
How this Nurse Salary in Spain guide is organised: Glassdoor first, then PayScale, then the public-sector scales for Madrid, then private and posting signals, a net-pay example, and demand and offer advice. Each figure is labelled with its source and market.
Glassdoor — Employee-Reported Pay in Spain — Nurse Salary in Spain
The headline survey figure for this Nurse Salary in Spain guide comes from Glassdoor: an average Registered Nurse base pay in Spain of €29,659 a year, based on 27 salaries submitted anonymously as of November 2026. The typical range is €24,000–€32,000. The sample is small, so read €29,659 as indicative rather than precise.
| Measure (Glassdoor, Registered Nurse, November 2026) — Nurse Salary in Spain | Salary |
|---|---|
| Spain average base pay (27 salaries) | €29,659 |
| Spain typical range (25th–75th percentile) | €24,000–€32,000 |
| Barcelona average (8 salaries) | €25,000 |
Two Glassdoor figures are deliberately not quoted. On the Spain page, a 90th-percentile figure of €60,000 sits next to a highest salary of €32,000, which cannot both be right, so neither is used. On the Barcelona page, a 90th percentile above €200,000 and a trajectory above €85,000 look contaminated with non-Spain data, and the Barcelona average itself rests on only 8 salaries. No current Glassdoor Madrid page was found; an old third-party copy claiming €51,140 from a single salary was excluded.
PayScale — A Higher Survey Average — Nurse Salary in Spain
For this Nurse Salary in Spain guide, PayScale's Spain page gives an average Registered Nurse base salary of €35,608 a year for 2026, with total pay of €18,000–€57,000. That sits above Glassdoor's €29,659, as expected from different samples. PayScale's own base range runs to €123,000 at the top end, which is plainly outlier-driven and is not usable as a typical range, so it is not quoted as one.
PayScale's experience bands are total compensation, including bonus and overtime, and rest on tiny samples: entry-level pay (under 1 year) averages €22,448 from 4 salaries, and early-career pay (1–4 years) averages €35,000 from 9 salaries. Mid- and late-career bands were not verifiable from the fetched page and are not invented here. A separate PayScale Staff Nurse average of €27,000 is weaker still, with no sample size shown, so it is noted only in passing.
Public Sector — Madrid SERMAS Scales, 2026 — Nurse Salary in Spain
The strongest sourced section of this Nurse Salary in Spain guide is the public scale. The national A2 base component alone is €16,143.90 a year — an ordinary monthly base of €1,199.52 plus two extra payments carrying a base of €874.83 each. Do not compute 14 × €1,199.52: the extra payments carry a different base amount, and €16,143.90 already reflects that. Each trienio, three years of seniority, adds €585.96 a year.
On the 2026 Madrid SERMAS scale, full-time gross totals including base, post, and specific supplements — but excluding trienios and on-call or shift payments — run from €28,129.16 for primary-care and consultation nurses to €33,863.00 for health-centre support nurses. Emergency nurses sit at €30,689.84. A separate guide on the same site quoting a €1,175 base and a 2.5% rise conflicts with the Hacienda-cited €1,199.52 and 1.5% rise used here, so the conflicting figures are excluded.
| Post (SERMAS Madrid, full-time gross, 2026, excl. trienios and on-call) — Nurse Salary in Spain | Annual gross |
|---|---|
| Primary-care nurse (A2, level 21) | €28,129.16 |
| Consultation nurse (A2, level 21) | €28,129.16 |
| Family and community specialist nurse (A2, level 22) | €29,719.00 |
| Emergency nurse (A2, level 21) | €30,689.84 |
| Patient-care service head nurse (A2, level 22) | €33,679.46 |
| Health-centre support nurse (A2, level 21) | €33,863.00 |
Madrid is not presented as the highest-paying region: no other region's official table was verified for the same post, year, and hours, so no cross-region ranking is made. Secondary guides put public-system starting pay nationally at roughly €25,000–€36,000 gross, with seniority, progression, and on-call duty taking some posts above €45,000 in better-paying regions, and starting net pay at roughly €1,450–€1,900 a month. Those are context figures, not scale figure
Private and Posting Signals — Nurse Salary in Spain
Posting medians for this Nurse Salary in Spain guide point to the same broad band as the surveys. Prosfy's aggregation of job postings puts licensed practical and vocational nurses in Spain at a median of €32,400 a year from 438 salaries analysed in April 2026, but that sample mixes Spain postings with Norway and Germany postings at €50,000–€66,000, so the median overstates Spain-only postings and is quoted only with that warning. Specialist medians from the same source run lower, at €27,000–€28,500, on samples of 52–59.
A dated anchor for this Nurse Salary in Spain guide helps ground the band: a November 2026 public-employment offer for 100 nurses in the Canary Islands, Estepona, and Madrid, via the Hospiten group, offered €26,000 a year gross on indefinite contracts with Spanish social security. That is one employer's offer, not a market average, but it sits inside the survey band rather than outside it.
What €28,000 Gross Means in Net Pay (Spain, 2026) — Nurse Salary in Spain
Net example for this Nurse Salary in Spain guide, labelled as a third-party calculator illustration, not the site calculator's output: Expatica's simplified 2026 calculator, which includes no deductions, credits, dependents, or special regimes, puts social security at €1,820 (6.50%) and income tax at €4,365 on €28,000 gross, leaving net pay of €21,815 a year, or 77.9% of gross. Its income-tax split applies 19% to €12,450, 24% to €20,200, and 30% above that — a bracket illustration, not a personalised withholding calculation.
Two things will move a real nurse's net figure away from that illustration. First, the personal minimum of €5,550 works as a credit against tax at the lowest-band rate, not as a zero-rate band, and a €2,000 general expense deduction and deductible social security also apply. Second, the combined 2026 income-tax scale runs 19% to €12,450, 24% to €20,200, 30% to €35,200, and 37% above that, but the state and regional scales combine, so the bill varies by autonomous community. A personalised calculation will therefore differ, and no sourced net figure for the SERMAS €28,129.16 gross was found, so none is invented.
| €28,000 gross breakdown (Expatica simplified 2026 calculator illustration) — Nurse Salary in Spain | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross salary | €28,000 |
| Employee social security (6.50%) | −€1,820 |
| Income tax (simplified, no deductions or credits) | −€4,365 |
| Net after tax | €21,815 a year |
Employee social security for 2026, as used in this Nurse Salary in Spain guide, is about 6.5% across sources (6.47–6.50%), including the 0.15% MEI surcharge; the 6.35% figure still widely quoted is only the pre-MEI subtotal. Run your exact gross through the Spain salary calculator before you accept, and check your community's scale separately.
Demand and Shortage — Nurse Salary in Spain
The General Nursing Council's 2025 ratios report, published 1 July 2026, puts Spain at 6.45 nurses per 1,000 inhabitants against an EU average of 8.12 — a shortfall of roughly 100,000 nurses to reach the EU average. That is a staffing-ratio shortfall, not a vacancy forecast, and it is labelled as such. In the same reporting, 1,356 nurses applied for good-conduct certificates to work abroad in 2025, up about 20% from 1,134 in 2024.
On outlook, this Nurse Salary in Spain guide quotes no 2027 pay figure at all. No credible 2027 nurse salary forecast was found, and modelled estimates for niche titles that sit far below every other source were excluded. The honest 2027 statement is qualitative only: the ratio shortfall points to sustained demand, so re-check the live surveys and scales at offer time rather than indexing a 2026 figure forward.
What This Guide Does Not Include — and How to Use It for a Job Offer — Nurse Salary in Spain
This Nurse Salary in Spain guide does not include a cross-region public pay ranking (only Madrid's table was verified), a Glassdoor Madrid average (none current was found), a sourced net figure for the SERMAS €28,129.16 gross (none was found), or any published 2027 pay scale. It does not split private-sector pay by hospital group, and posting medians are quoted only with their contamination warnings.
- Use this guide as a benchmark, not a verdict: compare your offer with the average and the scale for the same sector, post, and region.
- Check what a scale figure excludes: SERMAS totals exclude trienios and on-call duty, which can add materially to take-home pay.
- Run your exact gross through the Spain salary calculator before you accept, and check your community's scale separately.
- If an offer sits below the Glassdoor 25th percentile (€24,000), ask what it includes that the average does not — hours, shift pattern, or a lower-experience brief.
- Never compare a posting median with a scale figure: postings show what employers advertise, scales show what a post pays.
When you use the Nurse Salary in Spain figures for a job offer, match sector, post, and region before you negotiate. A public primary-care post should be judged against the SERMAS scale and the survey band together, and a private post against the survey and posting figures. Bring the source with you: an employer is more likely to move on a published scale or survey figure than on a round number from memory.
Related Salary Calculators and Guides
Frequently Asked Questions — Nurse Salary in Spain
Sources — Nurse Salary in Spain
Employee-reported averages: Glassdoor — Registered Nurse salaries in Spain (27 salaries, November 2026) and Glassdoor — Registered Nurse salaries in Barcelona (8 salaries, November 2026). Experience and ranges: PayScale — Registered Nurse Salary in Spain (2026 page, entry 4 salaries, early career 9 salaries) and PayScale — Staff Nurse Salary in Spain (2026 page).
Public scales: Redopositor — Nurse pay by autonomous community 2026, citing the Secretaría de Estado de Presupuestos y Gastos 2026 pay table and BOCM Orden de 3 de febrero de 2026 (SERMAS payroll instructions). Posting medians: Prosfy — Licensed nurse postings in Spain (438 salaries, April 2026; sample mixes non-Spain postings, see warning in text). Net illustration: Expatica — Spain Salary Tax Calculator 2026 (simplified, no deductions or credits). Demand: Cita News — General Nursing Council ratios report 2025 (published 1 July 2026). Figures in this Nurse Salary in Spain guide are planning estimates, not salary guarantees; 2027 figures are outlook only.
Disclaimer: All figures on this page are survey and job-ad benchmarks for planning only. Actual pay depends on employer, region, experience, post and benefits. This Nurse Salary in Spain guide is not a salary guarantee and does not replace the source surveys or a qualified adviser.