Palma de Mallorca

Is Palma de Mallorca safe?

Yes from violence, less so for your phone. The Interior Ministry's crime balance recorded two homicides in Palma in 2025 and one in 2024, about 0.5 per 100,000 people, as low as Madrid. Theft is a different story: police logged 15,912 thefts in 2025, 15% more than a year earlier. Per resident that is behind only Barcelona among the Spanish cities we cover, and well above Valencia or Seville.

Part of that is arithmetic. Palma has 435,000 residents and receives millions of visitors a year, so a theft rate per resident flatters no one. But the visitors are also the targets. We score Palma 78, level with Barcelona. For the rest of the country, see our Spain page.

Where thieves work

The biggest pickpocket ring police have taken down in Mallorca, broken up in 2020 with 34 arrests, worked the same places tourists go, according to the National Police case reported by the Majorca Daily Bulletin:

• The Cathedral and the old town, the first stop for most day visitors and cruise passengers.
• Playa de Palma and El Arenal, on the beach and in the bars.
• Bellver Castle, where tour groups gather.
• Buses on the main lines to the airport and Playa de Palma, and their busiest stops.
• The airport, especially the car-rental car park. In 2023 police arrested two men there with 111 previous arrests between them, after one distracted a German couple while the other took a bag worth €4,700.

The methods are the same as in Barcelona: distraction, crowding at bus doors, and bags lifted from beach towels or café chairs. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary's warnings for Spain also apply: watch your luggage when collecting a hire car, and do not hand your wallet to anyone claiming to be plain-clothes police.

Playa de Palma after dark

Most of Palma is calm at night. The old town, Santa Catalina's restaurants and the Paseo Marítimo clubs are busy until late, and trouble is mostly phone and bag theft. The EU's 2023 survey of residents does not cover Palma, so we use Barcelona, the nearest surveyed city, where 68% feel safe walking alone at night, and take 2 points off for the 22% rise in violent robberies in Palma in 2025.

Playa de Palma is the exception. The beer halls and clubs around El Arenal draw young, heavy-drinking crowds in summer, and local laws restrict alcohol sales there: no happy hours, open bars, pub crawls or party boats, and no shop sales between 9:30pm and 8am. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary warns of drink spiking with GHB in Spain and of serious, sometimes fatal, falls from hotel balconies, and hotels on the islands evict guests who climb on them. Stay with your friends, buy your own drinks, and stay off balconies after drinking.

Roads, sea and storms

Palma's roads are less safe than those of Spain's bigger cities. DGT accident records show 16 deaths within 30 days in the municipality in 2024 and 19 in 2025, about 4 per 100,000 residents, though fewer than half were in the urban area itself; the rest were on the ring road and the motorways to the airport and the island. Motorcyclists were the largest group of the dead. The DGT count includes those motorways and deaths up to 30 days after a crash, so it runs higher than the city police count on our Madrid page; on the same basis Madrid had about 1.5 per 100,000. If you hire a scooter, wear the helmet and take extra care on roundabouts.

The sea causes more harm to visitors than the streets do. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary says people drown at Spanish beaches every year and that some island beaches have strong undercurrents. Swim at beaches with lifeguards and follow the flags.

Natural hazards are moderate. Earthquakes are not a concern. Short, violent autumn storms are: in September 2017 an afternoon thunderstorm flooded underpasses, garages and large parts of the ring road, and put the roads to the port under water. Avoid driving through flooded underpasses. In summer, wildfires break out across the island, so follow closures if you are hiking in the Serra de Tramuntana.

Air quality is reasonable for a port city, with less nitrogen dioxide than Madrid or Barcelona. Tap water is safe to drink, though many locals prefer bottled. Son Espases University Hospital handles emergencies for the island.

How we scored it

Violent crime (92) is Palma's strongest factor. Theft and scams (54) is the weakest, on a theft rate per resident second only to Barcelona among the Spanish cities we cover and rising. Walking at night (75) uses Barcelona's 2023 EU survey result, less 2 points for rising robberies and the Playa de Palma party strip. Traffic (80) is lower than in the mainland cities because of deaths on the ring road and motorways.