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Currency:
Euro
Capital:
Madrid
Major Cities (by population size):
Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Malaga, Murcia, Las Palmas, Palma de Mallorca, Bilbao
Geography:
Spain lies on the eastern side of the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. It is bordered by Portugal to the west, France and Andorra to the north east and Gibraltar (a British overseas territory) to the south. Spain borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west (Galicia only) and the Mediterranean to the south and east. It also includes the Balearic Islands (Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera) off the Catalan coast to the north east and the Canary Islands off the north west corner of the African continent. Spain has a temperate climate, with hot, clear summers inland and more moderate and cloudy summers along the coast. Spain's landscape is mostly a large, flat plateau but with some rugged hills and the Pyrenees Mountains on the French border to the north east. Spain suffers occasional droughts during summer periods.
Politics:
After the death of dictator General Franco in 1975, Spain made a peaceful transition to democracy with King Juan Carlos as head of state. Thereafter, the country went through a rapid economic modernisation process and in 1986 Spain joined the EU (then the European Communities). On 1 January 1999, Spain was among the first group of countries to adopt the European single currency (the euro). Overall the country is very stable and secure although it continues to struggle with the threat of periodic attacks from Basque terrorist organisation ETA and there are some strong regionalist forces within the Catalonia region. The current socialist President, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, won office in the wake of the al-Qaeda bombings in Madrid in 2004.
Economy:
- Inflation rate (consumer prices): 3.5% (2006 est.)
- GDP (official exchange rate): $1.081 trillion (2006 est.)
- GDP (purchasing power parity): $1.07 trillion (2006 est.)
- GDP (real) growth rate: 3.6% (2006 est.)
- Foreign Direct Investment (net inflow): -$35.9 billion
Spain's economy has a large manufacturing base with key industries in textiles, food and beverages, metals, chemicals, shipbuilding, automobiles, tourism and pharmaceuticals. After joining the EU in 1986, the Spanish economy took off averaging 5% GDP growth up until the Europe-wide recession of the early 1990s; Spain then grew moderately after 1994. Between 2003 and 2006, Spain's economic growth averaged 3%, a very respectable figure given the backdrop of a faltering European economy. Historically high unemployment also continues to decline but remains high at 8.7%. Current issues include sluggish productivity, labour market inflexibility, the exposure of the housing market to speculatory bubbles, loss of competitiveness and the decline of EU structural funding. Spain's per capita GDP is 80% of that of the four leading West European economies; Spain has the ninth largest economy in the world.
Legal System:
Spain has a civil law system with regional variations. The country accepts compulsory International Court of Justice jurisdiction, with some reservations. The judiciary is independent, but case resolution is extremely slow . The Heritage Foundation comments, “The judiciary is independent in practice, but bureaucratic obstacles at the national and state levels are significant. Contracts are secure, although the courts are very slow to enforce contracts when they are not honoured.”
People:
The Spanish population is an even mix between Mediterranean and north European ethnic types. Castilian Spanish is the official language of Spain and is spoken by 74% of the population. However, there are also several significant “regional” languages including Catalan (17%), Galician (7%) and Basque (2%). 94% of the population are Roman Catholic.
Demographics:
Spain has a population of 40,397,842 (July 2006 est.) with a meagre growth rate of 0.13% (2006 est.) based on a slightly higher birth rate (10.06 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)) than death rate (9.72 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)). Net immigration is low at 0.99 migrants/1,000 (2006 est.) and life expectancy at birth is relatively high (79.65 years).
Country Ratings:
- Economist Intelligence Unit Quality of Life Index: 7.727, rank: 10 th (2005)
- Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom: Rank 27, 70.9% free, Category: Mostly free
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