Spain

Kingdom of Spain
Reino de España (Spanish)
7 other names[a]
Motto: Plus ultra (Latin)
(English: "Further Beyond")
Anthem: Marcha Real (Spanish)[1]
(English: "Royal March")
Location of Spain (dark green)

– in Europe (green & dark grey)
– in the European Union (green)

Capital
and largest city
Madrid
40°26′N 3°42′W / 40.433°N 3.700°W / 40.433; -3.700
Official languageSpanish[b]
Nationality (2023)[3]
Religion
(2023)[4]
  • 56.0% Roman Catholicism
  • 14.9% Atheist
  • 12.6% Agnostic
  • 12.3% indifferent or no religion
  • 2.7% other religion
  • 1.5% unanswered
Demonym(s)
  • Spaniard
  • Spanish
GovernmentUnitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
• Monarch
Felipe VI
Pedro Sánchez
Francina Armengol
Pedro Rollán
LegislatureCortes Generales
Senate
Congress of Deputies
Formation
20 January 1479
14 March 1516
9 June 1715
19 March 1812
29 December 1978
1 January 1986
Area
• Total
505,994[5] km2 (195,365 sq mi) (51st)
• Water (%)
0.89[6]
Population
• 2023 estimate
48,592,909[7] (30th)
• Density
94/km2 (243.5/sq mi) (120th)
GDP (PPP)2023 estimate
• Total
Increase $2.413 trillion[8] (15th)
• Per capita
Increase $50,471[8] (37th)
GDP (nominal)2023 estimate
• Total
Increase $1.582 trillion[8] (15th)
• Per capita
Increase $33,090[8] (32nd)
Gini (2022)Positive decrease 32.0[9]
medium
HDI (2022)Steady 0.911[10]
very high (27th)
CurrencyEuro[d] () (EUR)
Time zoneUTC⁠±0 to +1 (WET and CET)
• Summer (DST)
UTC+1 to +2 (WEST and CEST)
Note: most of Spain observes CET/CEST, except the Canary Islands which observe WET/WEST.
Date formatdd/mm/yyyy (CE)
Driving sideright
Calling code+34
ISO 3166 codeES
Internet TLD.es[e]

Spain,[f] or the Kingdom of Spain,[g][h] is a country located in Southwestern Europe, with parts of its territory in the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and Africa.[11][i] It is the largest country in Southern Europe and the fourth-most populous European Union member state. Spanning across the majority of the Iberian Peninsula, its territory also includes the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla in Africa. Peninsular Spain is bordered to the north by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; to the east and south by the Mediterranean Sea and Gibraltar; and to the west by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. Spain's capital and largest city is Madrid, and other major urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, Seville, Málaga, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and Bilbao.

In early antiquity, the Iberian Peninsula was inhabited by Celtic and Iberian tribes, along with other local pre-Roman peoples. With the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the province of Hispania was established. Following the Romanization and Christianization of Hispania, the fall of the Western Roman Empire ushered in the inward migration of tribes from Central Europe, including the Visigoths, who formed the Visigothic Kingdom centred on Toledo. In the early eighth century, most of the peninsula was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate, and during early Islamic rule, Al-Andalus became a dominant peninsular power centred in Córdoba. Several Christian kingdoms emerged in Northern Iberia, chief among them Asturias, León, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Portugal; made an intermittent southward military expansion and repopulation, known as the Reconquista, repelling Islamic rule in Iberia, which culminated with the Christian seizure of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada in 1492. The dynastic union of the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon in 1479 under the Catholic Monarchs is often considered the de facto unification of Spain as a nation-state.

During the Age of Discovery, Spain pioneered the exploration of the New World and the first circumnavigation of the globe. At the same time, it formed one of the largest empires in history through colonization. The Spanish empire reached a global scale and spread across continents, underpinning the rise of a global trading system fueled primarily by precious metals. The 18th century was marked by extensive reforms and, notably, the Bourbon reforms centralized mainland Spain.[12] In the 19th century, after the Napoleonic occupation and the victorious Spanish War of independence, the following political divisions between liberals and absolutists led to the breakaway of most of the American colonies. These political divisions finally converged in the 20th century with the Spanish Civil War, giving rise to the Francoist dictatorship that lasted until 1975. With the restoration of democracy and its entry into the European Union, the country experienced an economic boom that profoundly transformed it socially and politically. Since the Siglo de Oro, Spanish art, architecture, music, poetry, painting, literature, and cuisine have been influential worldwide, particularly in Western Europe and the Americas. Spain is one of the main nations of Latin Europe and a cultural superpower.[13][14] As a reflection of its large cultural wealth, Spain is the world's second-most visited country, has one of the world's largest numbers of World Heritage Sites, and It's the most popular destination for European students.[15] Its cultural influence extends to over 600 million Hispanophones, making Spanish the world's second-most spoken native language and the world's most widely spoken Romance language.[16]

Spain is a secular parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy,[17] with King Felipe VI as head of state. It is a major advanced capitalist economy,[18] with the world's fifteenth-largest economy by nominal GDP (fourth of the European Union) and the fifteenth-largest by PPP. Spain is a member of the United Nations, the European Union, the eurozone, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a permanent guest of the G20, and is part of many other international organizations such as the Council of Europe (CoE), the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), the Union for the Mediterranean, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the World Trade Organization (WTO).


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Presidency of the Government (11 October 1997). "Real Decreto 1560/1997, de 10 de octubre, por el que se regula el Himno Nacional" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado núm. 244 (in Spanish). Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 September 2015.
  2. ^ "The Spanish Constitution". Lamoncloa.gob.es. Archived from the original on 25 March 2013. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  3. ^ "Estadística Continua de Población (ECP) a 1 de abril de 2023. Datos provisionales" (PDF). ine.es (in Spanish). Instituto Nacional de Estadística. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 June 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  4. ^ CIS."Barómetro de Enero de 2023", 3,961 respondents. The question was "¿Cómo se define Ud. en materia religiosa: católico/a practicante, católico/a no practicante, creyente de otra religión, agnóstico/a, indiferente o no creyente, o ateo/a?".
  5. ^ "Anuario estadístico de España 2008. 1ª parte: entorno físico y medio ambiente" (PDF). Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spain). Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  6. ^ "Surface water and surface water change". Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Archived from the original on 24 March 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  7. ^ "Cifras de población. Últimos datos". ine.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2023 Edition. (Spain)". IMF.org. International Monetary Fund. 10 October 2023. Archived from the original on 15 October 2023. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  9. ^ "Gini coefficient of equivalised disposable income – EU-SILC survey". ec.europa.eu. Eurostat. Archived from the original on 20 March 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  10. ^ "Human Development Report 2023/24" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024. p. 288. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  11. ^ "Spain | Facts, Culture, History, & Points of Interest". Encyclopedia Britannica. 26 July 2023. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  12. ^ Flynn, Dennis O.; Giráldez Source, Arturo (1995). "Born with a 'Silver Spoon': The Origin of World Trade in 1571". Journal of World History. 6 (2): 202. JSTOR 20078638.
  13. ^ "Beyond Bullfights and Sangria: Five Centuries of Spanish History through Its Music, Art, and Literature - UC San Diego Extension". Archived from the original on 25 November 2016. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  14. ^ "Spain, main reference for world's Hispanic heritage". ABC.es. Madrid. 3 July 2014. Archived from the original on 11 September 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  15. ^ Spain is crowned the champion of foreign students. This is thanks to universities such as those in Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid, Granada and Salamanca. Although nowhere near as popular as Spain, we find Germany in second place. It is a country that also has a large number of prestigious universities spread out across many cities. The fact that Germany is an economic powerhouse makes it an attractive destination for those searching for employment after studying. France, the United Kingdom and Italy appear in third, fourth and fifth position. The rest of countries rank behind at a considerable distance. What are the most popular Erasmus destinations? Archived 30 June 2023 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ "572 millones de personas hablan español, cinco millones más que hace un año, y aumentarán a 754 millones a mediados de siglo". www.cervantes.es. Archived from the original on 13 May 2021.
  17. ^ Spanish Constitution 1978, Article 1.
  18. ^ Whitehouse, Mark (6 November 2010). "Number of the Week: $10.2 Trillion in Global Borrowing". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 20 September 2017.

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