ECONOMY : | : DEMOGRAPHICS : | : RELIGION : | : MINORITY GROUPS : | : GEOGRAPHY : | : DISPUTES : | : CLIMATE

ECONOMY:
• The country is managing to decrease the unemployment rate little by little (8,5% in 2006). The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is slowly increasing as well (3%-3,5% average). However the Spanish economy still has to work out important imbalances, although it's now the 8th largest economy in the world.

• The quality of life in Spain is one of the highest in the world, 10th place, ranking above countries like France, the UK, the US and Canada.

• 85% of the real estate property in Spain is privately owned; only 15% of the property in Spain is being rented. People tend to purchase their homes, even though the average price of a Spanish home is 2,510 Euros per Square Meter, which is about $280 per square foot.

• There is general concern that Spain's model of economic growth (based largely on mass tourism, the construction industry, and manufacturing sectors) is faltering and may prove unsustainable over the long term. The first report of the Observatory on Sustainability (Observatorio de Sostenibilidad) - published in 2005 and funded by Spain's Ministry of the Environment and Alcalá University - reveals that the country's per capita GDP grew by 25% over the last ten years, while greenhouse gas emissions have risen by 45% since 1990.

• The country has a big dependence on imported oil, meeting roughly 80% of Spain's energy needs; it is one of the greatest in the EU.

• Other perennial weak points of Spain's economy include one of the lowest rates of investment in Research and Development, and in education in the EU. Spain only invests 4,4% of the public funds in education.

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DEMOGRAPHICS:
• Spain is the 3rd country in the world with the highest life expectancy (77 for men, 84 for women) and the least child mortality.

• According to the Spanish government there are 3.7 million legal foreign residents in Spain. Of these around 500,000 are Morrocan and another half a million are Ecuatorian. More than 300,000 are Romanian and 270,000 are Colombian. There are also important numbers of British and German citizens. In 2005 alone, the immigrant population of Spain increased by 700,000 people. Spain has the highest immigration rate of the European Union.

• There are about 1,3 children per Spanish woman. These numbers are slowly increasing, also as an effect of the immigration of foreign people into the country, that bring 12% of the births in Spain. The average age at which Spanish women used to have kids was 25. That has also increased and it is now 29.

• Births outside marriage: the numbers increased from 10% in 1980 to 21% in 2002. • Spanish men get married at the average age of 30 and women at the average age of 28. At least 12% of those marriages have at least one foreign member. 44% of those are Spanish men married to a foreign woman, 30% are Spanish women married to a foreign man and 26% are foreign men and women couples.

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RELIGION:
Roman Catholicism is, by far, the most popular religion in the country. Spanish official polls show that 80% to 94% self-identify as Catholics, whereas around 6% to 13% identify with either other religions or none at all. Spain is also the location of one of the Roman Catholic church's most important holy cities; Santo Toribio de Liébana, which holds the largest single piece of the true cross. However, many Spaniards identify themselves as Catholics just because they were baptised, even though they are not very religious at all (in fact some polls show that 14% do not believe in any God). According to recent surveys only around 18 % of Spaniards regularly attend mass. Of those under 30, only about 14 % attend. Further evidence of the secular nature of modern Spain can be seen in the widespread support for the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Spain - over 70% of Spaniards support gay marriage according to a 2004 study by the Centre of Sociological Investigations. In June 2005 a bill was passed by 187 votes to 147 to allow gay marriage, making Spain the third country in the European Union to allow same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual ones. This vote was split along conservative-liberal lines, with the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and other left-leaning parties supporting the measure and the Popular Party (PP) against it. Proposed changes to the divorce laws to make the process quicker and to eliminate the need for a guilty party are also popular. There is a growing rift between the urban areas of Spain and parts of the periphery, such as Catalonia, who support the secularisation of the state, and the rural areas and conservative parts of the periphery, like Galicia, who support keeping the social ideals inherent with their religious past. The second religion of Spain is the organization of the Jehovah's Witnesses with 103,784 active publishers; there are also many Protestant denominations, all of them with less than 50,000 members, and about 20,000 Mormons. Evangelism has been better received among Gypsies than among the general population; pastors have integrated flamenco music in their liturgy. Taken together, all self-described "Evangelicals" slightly surpass Jehovah's Witnesses in number. Other religious faiths represented in Spain include the Bahá'í Community. The recent waves of immigration have led to an increasing number of Muslims, who have about 800,000 members. Since the expulsion of the Sephardim in 1492, Judaism was practically nonexistent until the 19th century, when Jews were again permitted to enter the country. Currently there are around 14,000 Jews in Spain, all arrivals in the past century. There are also many Spaniards (in Spain and abroad) who claim Jewish ancestry to the Conversos, and still practice certain customs. Spain is believed to have been about 8 % Jewish on the eve of the Spanish Inquisition. Over the past thirty years, Spain has become a more secularised society. The number of believers has decreased significantly and for those who believe the degree of accordance and practice to their church is diverse. In 2002, 80% of Spaniards self-identified as Catholic, 12% as non-believer, and 1% as other (the remaining 7% declined to state). Of the 1.4% identifying as other, 29% identified as Evangelical Christian, 26% as Jehovah's Witnesses and 3.5% as Muslim (the rest either mentioned smaller religions or declined to state). According to the same poll, 73% believed in God, 14% didn't and 12% were unsure (1% declined to state). Additionally, according to this poll, only 41% believed in Heaven. 24% of the Spaniards thought that the Bible was just a fable. Only 25% of Catholics went to church at least once a week. In a more recent poll, in 2005, results were markedly different, as only 59% of Spanish citizens responded that "they believe there is a God", whereas 21% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" and 18% that "they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God, or life force".

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MINORITY GROUPS:
Since the 16th century, the most important minority group in the country have been the Gitanos (gipsys). They have kept historically apart from the rest of the citizens. The number of immigrants or foreign residents has tripled to 3,691,547 in less than five years. They currently make up around 8.5 % of the official total population. The rise of population in Spain in recent years was largely due to them. Nearly half of all immigrants have neither residence nor work permits. As of October 2005, there were 2,597,014 foreigners with valid residence permits, of which the largest are 552,694 EU citizens, also with 144,283 Britons, 473,048 Moroccans, 333,251 Ecuadorians, 192,965 Colombians and 174,590 Romanians. Spain has also a number of black African-blooded people - first, descendants of slaves who were brought to the country before bringing them to its possessions in the Americas; second, descendants of the settlers from former colonies (including Equatorial Guinea) who chose to be in Spanish guidance; and third, children of immigrants from several African countries who settled Spain as contract workers. A sizeable and increasing number of Spanish citizens also descend from Spanish-speaking countries.

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GEOGRAPHY:
Mainland Spain is dominated by high plateaus and mountain ranges such as the Pyrenees or the Sierra Nevada. Running from these heights are several major rivers such as the Tajo, the Ebro, the Duero, the Guadiana and the Guadalquivir. Alluvial plains are found along the coast, the largest of which is that of the Guadalquivir in Andalusia, in the east there are alluvial plains with medium rivers like Segura, Júcar and Turia. Spain is bound to the east by Mediterranean Sea (containing the Balearic Islands), to the north by the Bay of Biscay and to its west by the Atlantic Ocean, where the Canary Islands off the African coast are found.

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TERRITORIAL DISPUTES:
Territories claimed by Spain Spain has called for the return of Gibraltar, a tiny British possession on its southern coast. It was conquered during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1704 and was ceded to Britain in perpetuity in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. An overwhelming majority of Gibraltar's 30,000 inhabitants want to remain British, as they have repeatedly proven in referenda on the issue. The UN resolutions (2231 (XXI) and 2353 (XXII)) call on the UK and Spain to reach an agreement to end the colonial status of Gibraltar. According to Spain, these resolutions overule the Treaty of Utrecht. There is also dispute regarding the demarcation line. Britain extended its control up to the 18th century picket line in 1939 after General Franco's victory made it seem likely that Spain would enter the Second World War on the Axis side. Gibraltar is officially a non-self governing territory or colony according to the UN. Spanish territories claimed by other countries Morocco claims the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla and the uninhabited Vélez, Alhucemas, Chafarinas, and Perejil islands, all on the Northern coast of Africa. Morocco points out that those territories were obtained when Morocco could not do anything to prevent it and has never signed treaties ceding them. Spain claims that these territories are integral parts of Spain and have been Spanish or linked to Spain since before the Islamic invasion of Spain in 711 and returned to Spanish rule only a few years after the conquest of Granada. Spain claims that Morocco's only claim on these territories is geographical. Parallelism with Egyptian ownership of the Sinai (in Asia) or Turkish ownership of Istambul (in Europe) is often used to support the Spanish position. Portugal does not recognize Spain's sovereignty over the territory of Olivenza. The Portuguese claim that the Treaty of Vienna (1815), to which Spain was a signatory, stipulated return of the territory to Portugal. Spain alleges that the Treaty of Vienna left the provisions of the Treaty of Badajoz intact.

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CLIMATE:
Spain's climate can be divided in four areas:

• The Mediterranean: mostly temperate in the eastern and southern part of the country; rainy seasons are spring and autumn. Mild summers with pleasant temperatures.

• The interior: Very cold winters (frequent snow in the north) and hot summers.

• Northern Atlantic coast: precipitations mostly in winter, with mild summers (slightly cold).

• The Canary Islands: subtropical weather, with mild temperatures (18 °C to 24 °C; 64 °F to 75 °F) throughout the year.

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