Demographics of Spain - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This article is about the demographic

Demographics

Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...

features of the population

Population

A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

of Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, including population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

, ethnicity

Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Spain

Spain

has 47,150,819 inhabitants according to 1/1/2010 municipal records (Padrón Municipal). Its population density, at 91.4/km² (229/sq. mile), is lower than that of most Western Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an countries. With the exception of the capital, Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, the most densely populated areas lie around the coast.

The population of Spain doubled during the twentieth century, but the pattern of growth was extremely uneven due to large-scale internal migration from the rural interior to the industrial cities, a phenomenon which happened later than in other Western European countries. No fewer than eleven of Spain's fifty provinces saw an absolute decline in population over the century.

The last quarter of the century saw a dramatic fall in birth rates. Spain's fertility rate of 1.47 (the number of children the average woman will have during her lifetime) is lower than the EU average, but has climbed every year since the late 1990s. The birth rate

Birth rate

Crude birth rate is the nativity or childbirths per 1,000 people per year . Another word used interchangeably with "birth rate" is "natality". When the crude birth rate is subtracted from the crude death rate, it reveals the rate of natural increase...

has climbed in 10 years from 9.10 births per 1000 people per year in 1996 to 10.9 in 2006.

Spain has no official religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

. The Spanish Constitution of 1978

Spanish Constitution of 1978

-Structure of the State:The Constitution recognizes the existence of nationalities and regions . Preliminary Title As a result, Spain is now composed entirely of 17 Autonomous Communities and two autonomous cities with varying degrees of autonomy, to the extent that, even though the Constitution...

abolished the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

as the official state religion, while recognizing the role it plays in Spanish society. 76.7% of the population define themselves as Catholic, 20.0% as non-believers or atheists, and 1.6% other religions. Among believers, 55.3% assert they almost never go to any religious service, by contrast, 17.0% attend one or more masses almost every week.

Immigration and Demographic Issues

The population of Spain doubled during the twentieth century as a result of the spectacular demographic boom in the 1960s and early 1970s. After that time, the birth rate plunged through the 1980s and Spain's population became stalled, its demographics showing one of the lowest sub replacement fertility rates

Sub-replacement fertility

Sub-replacement fertility is a total fertility rate that leads to each new generation being less populous than the previous one in a given area. In developed countries sub-replacement fertility is any rate below approximately 2.1 children born per woman, but the threshold can be as high as 3.4...

in the world, only second to Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

Many demographers have linked Spain's very low fertility rate to the country's lack of any real family planning policy. Spain spends the least on family support out all western European countries—0.5% of GDP. A graphic illustration of the enormous social gulf between Spain and the rest of Europe in this field is the fact that a Spanish family would need to have 57 children to enjoy the same financial support as a family with 3 children in Luxembourg.

In emigration/immigration terms, after centuries of net emigration, Spain, has recently experienced large-scale immigration for the first time in modern history. According to the Spanish government there were 5,730,667 foreign residents in Spain as of January 2011. Of these, more than 860,000 were Romanian

Romanians

The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....

, and half 760,000 were Moroccan

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

while the number of Ecuadorians was around 390,000. Colombian

Colombian people

Colombian people are from a multiethnic Spanish speaking nation in South America called Colombia. Colombians are predominantly Roman Catholic and are a mixture of Europeans, Africans, and Amerindians.-Demography:...

population amounted to around 300,000. There are also a significant number of British (359,076 as of 2011, but more than one million are estimated to live permanently in Spain) and German (195,842) citizens, mainly in Alicante

Alicante (province)

Alicante or Alacant is a province of eastern Spain, in the southern part of the Valencian Community. It is bordered by the provinces of Murcia on the southwest, Albacete on the west, Valencia on the north, and the Mediterranean Sea on the east...

, Málaga

Málaga (province)

The Province of Málaga is located on the southern coast of Spain, in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the South, and by the provinces of Cádiz, Sevilla, Córdoba and Granada.Its area is 7,308 km²...

provinces, Balearic Islands

Balearic Islands

The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...

and Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

. Chinese number over 166,000. Immigrants from several sub-Saharan African countries have also settled in Spain as contract workers, although they represent only 4.08% of all the foreign residents in the country.

During the early 2000s, the mean year-on-year demographic growth set a new record with its 2003 peak variation of 2.1%, doubling the previous record reached back in the 1960s when a mean year-on-year growth of 1% was experienced. This trend is far from being reversed at the present moment and, in 2005 alone, the immigrant population of Spain increased by 700,000 people.

Allegedly, the growing population of immigrants is the main reason for the slight increase in Spain's fertility rate. From 2002 through 2008 the Spanish population grew by 8%, of which 6% were foreign.

Vital statistics

	Average population (x 1000)	Live births	Deaths	Natural change	Crude birth rate (per 1000)	Crude death rate (per 1000)	Natural change (per 1000)
1900	18 520	627 848	536 716	91 132	33.9	29.0	4.9
1901	18 610	650 649	517 575	133 074	35.0	27.8	7.1
1902	18 720	666 687	488 289	178 398	35.6	26.1	9.6
1903	18 810	685 265	470 387	214 878	36.4	25.0	11.4
1904	18 980	649 878	486 889	162 989	34.2	25.7	8.6
1905	19 110	670 651	491 369	179 282	35.1	25.7	9.4
1906	19 250	650 385	499 018	151 367	33.8	25.9	7.8
1907	19 380	646 371	472 007	174 364	33.3	24.4	9.0
1908	19 530	658 008	460 946	197 062	33.7	23.6	10.1
1909	19 670	650 498	466 648	183 850	33.1	23.7	9.3
1910	19 770	646 975	456 158	190 817	32.7	23.1	9.7
1911	19 950	628 443	466 525	161 918	31.5	23.4	8.1
1912	20 040	637 860	426 297	211 563	31.8	21.3	10.6
1913	20 170	617 850	449 349	168 501	30.6	22.3	8.4
1914	20 310	608 207	450 340	157 867	29.9	22.2	7.8
1915	20 430	631 462	452 479	178 983	30.9	22.1	8.8
1916	20 610	599 011	441 673	157 338	29.1	21.4	7.6
1917	20 740	602 139	465 722	136 417	29.0	22.5	6.6
1918	20 910	612 637	695 758	-83 121	29.3	33.3	-4.0
1919	21 000	585 963	482 752	103 211	27.9	23.0	4.9
1920	21 130	623 339	494 540	128 799	29.5	23.4	6.1
1921	21 270	648 892	455 469	193 423	30.5	21.4	9.1
1922	21 510	656 093	441 330	214 763	30.5	20.5	10.0
1923	21 740	662 576	449 683	212 893	30.5	20.7	9.8
1924	21 990	653 085	430 590	222 495	29.7	19.6	10.1
1925	22 160	644 741	432 400	212 341	29.1	19.5	9.6
1926	22 400	663 401	420 838	242 563	29.6	18.8	10.8
1927	22 610	636 028	419 816	216 212	28.1	18.6	9.6
1928	22 860	666 240	413 002	253 238	29.1	18.1	11.1
1929	23 120	653 668	407 486	246 182	28.3	17.6	10.7
1930	23 340	660 860	394 488	266 372	28.3	16.9	11.4
1931	23 510	649 276	408 977	240 299	27.6	17.4	10.2
1932	23 897	670 670	388 900	281 770	28.3	16.5	11.8
1933	24 122	667 866	394 750	273 116	27.9	16.5	11.4
1934	24 349	641 889	392 793	249 096	26.4	16.1	10.2
1935	24 578	636 725	388 757	247 968	25.9	15.8	10.1
1936	24 810	617 220	417 108	200 112	24.9	16.8	8.1
1937	25 043	568 977	475 310	93 667	22.7	19.0	3.7
1938	25 279	508 726	487 546	21 180	20.1	19.3	0.8
1939	25 517	422 345	472 611	-50 266	16.6	18.5	-2.0
1940	25 757	631 285	428 416	202 869	24.5	16.6	7.9
1941	25 999	511 157	487 748	23 409	19.7	18.8	0.9
1942	26 244	530 845	387 844	143 001	20.2	14.8	5.4
1943	26 491	606 971	352 587	254 384	22.9	13.3	9.6
1944	26 620	602 091	349 114	253 796	22.6	13.1	9.5
1945	26 770	621 558	330 581	290 977	23.2	12.3	10.9
1946	27 030	585 381	353 371	232 010	21.7	13.1	8.6
1947	27 150	588 732	330 341	258 391	21.7	12.2	9.5
1948	27 593	642 041	305 310	336 731	23.3	11.1	12.2
1949	27 811	601 759	321 541	280 218	21.6	11.6	10.1
1950	28 009	565 378	305 934	259 444	20.2	10.9	9.3
1951	28 236	567 474	327 236	240 238	20.1	11.6	8.5
1952	28 474	593 019	276 735	316 284	20.8	9.7	11.1
1953	28 713	589 188	278 522	310 666	20.5	9.7	10.8
1954	28 955	577 886	264 668	313 218	20.0	9.1	10.8
1955	29 199	598 970	274 188	324 782	20.5	9.4	11.1
1956	29 445	608 121	290 410	317 711	20.7	9.9	10.8
1957	29 693	646 784	293 502	353 282	21.8	9.9	11.9
1958	29 943	653 216	260 683	392 533	21.8	8.7	13.1
1959	30 195	654 474	269 591	384 883	21.7	8.9	12.7
1960	30 455	663 375	268 941	394 434	21.8	8.8	13.0
1961	30 744	654 616	263 441	391 175	21.3	8.6	12.7
1962	31 067	658 816	278 575	380 241	21.2	9.0	12.2
1963	31 393	671 520	282 460	389 060	21.4	9.0	12.4
1964	31 723	697 697	273 955	423 742	22.0	8.6	13.4
1965	32 056	676 361	274 271	402 090	21.1	8.6	12.5
1966	32 394	669 919	276 173	393 746	20.7	8.5	12.2
1967	32 734	680 125	280 494	399 631	20.8	8.6	12.2
1968	33 079	667 311	282 628	384 683	20.2	8.5	11.6
1969	33 427	666 568	303 402	363 166	19.9	9.1	10.9
1970	33 779	663 667	286 067	377 600	19.6	8.5	11.2
1971	34 216	672 092	308 516	363 576	19.7	9.0	10.6
1972	34 572	672 405	285 508	386 897	19.5	8.3	11.2
1973	34 921	672 963	301 803	371 160	19.3	8.7	10.7
1974	35 288	688 711	300 403	388 308	19.6	8.5	11.0
1975	35 688	669 378	298 192	371 186	18.8	8.4	10.5
1976	36 118	677 456	299 007	378 449	18.9	8.3	10.5
1977	36 564	656 357	294 324	362 033	18.1	8.1	10.0
1978	36 741	636 892	296 781	340 111	17.3	8.1	9.2
1979	37 289	601 992	291 213	310 779	16.2	7.8	8.4
1980	37 527	571 018	289 344	281 674	15.2	7.7	7.5
1981	37 741	533 008	293 386	239 622	14.1	7.8	6.3
1982	37 942	515 706	286 655	229 051	13.6	7.6	6.0
1983	38 122	485 352	302 569	182 783	12.7	7.9	4.8
1984	38 279	473 281	299 409	173 872	12.4	7.8	4.5
1985	38 419	456 298	312 532	143 766	11.9	8.1	3.7
1986	38 536	438 750	310 413	128 337	11.4	8.1	3.3
1987	38 631	426 782	310 073	116 709	11.0	8.0	3.0
1988	38 716	418 919	319 437	99 482	10.8	8.3	2.6
1989	38 792	408 434	324 796	83 638	10.5	8.4	2.2
1990	38 851	401 425	333 142	68 283	10.3	8.6	1.8
1991	38 940	395 989	337 691	58 298	10.2	8.7	1.5
1992	39 068	396 747	331 515	65 232	10.2	8.5	1.7
1993	39 190	385 786	339 661	46 125	9.8	8.7	1.2
1994	39 295	370 148	338 242	31 906	9.4	8.6	0.8
1995	39 387	363 469	346 227	17 242	9.2	8.8	0.4
1996	39 478	362 626	351 449	11 177	9.2	8.9	0.3
1997	39 582	369 035	349 521	19 514	9.3	8.8	0.5
1998	39 721	365 193	360 511	4 682	9.2	9.1	0.1
1999	39 927	380 130	371 102	9 028	9.5	9.3	0.2
2000	40 264	397 632	360 391	37 241	9.9	9.0	0.9
2001	40 721	406 380	360 131	46 249	10.0	8.8	1.1
2002	41 314	418 846	368 618	50 228	10.1	8.9	1.2
2003	42 005	441 881	384 828	57 053	10.5	9.2	1.4
2004	42 692	454 591	371 934	82 657	10.6	8.7	1.9
2005	43 398	466 371	387 355	79 016	10.7	8.9	1.8
2006	44 117	482 957	371 478	111 479	10.9	8.4	2.5
2007	44 879	492 527	385 361	107 166	11.0	8.6	2.4
2008	45 556	518 967	385 954	133 013	11.4	8.5	2.9
2009	46 909	492 931	383 486	109 445	10.7	8.4	2.4
2010	47 203

Metropolitan areas

The most important metropolitan areas in 2007 are:

Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

5,603,285
Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

4,667,136
Valencia 1,671,189
Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...

1,499,673 (INE 2008)
Bilbao
Bilbao
Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...

950,829
Málaga
Málaga
Málaga is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. This is the southernmost large city in Europe...

897,563
Asturias
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...

(Gijón
Gijón
Gijón , officially Gijón / Xixón, is a coastal industrial city and a municipality in the autonomous community of Asturias in Spain. Early mediaeval texts mention it as "Gigia". It was an important regional Roman city, although the area has been settled since earliest history...

–Oviedo
Oviedo
Oviedo is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city....

–Avilés
Avilés
Avilés is a city in Asturias, Spain. Avilés is with Oviedo and Gijón, one of the main towns in the Principality of Asturias.The town occupies the flattest land in the municipality, in a land that belonged to the sea, surrounded by small promontories, all of them having an altitude of less than...

) 857,079
Alicante
Alicante
Alicante or Alacant is a city in Spain, the capital of the province of Alicante and of the comarca of Alacantí, in the south of the Valencian Community. It is also a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city of Alicante proper was 334,418, estimated , ranking as the second-largest...

–Elche 748,565
Zaragoza
Zaragoza
Zaragoza , also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain...

731,803
Vigo
Vigo
Vigo is a city and municipality in north-west Spain, in Galicia, situated on the ria of the same name on the Atlantic Ocean.-Population:...

662,412
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria commonly known as Las Palmas is the political capital, jointly with Santa Cruz, the most populous city in the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands and the ninth largest city in Spain, with a population of 383,308 in 2010. Nearly half of the people of the island...

616,903
Bahía de Cádiz
Bay of Cádiz (comarca)
The Bay of Cádiz is a comarca in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, southern Spain. It is composed of five municipalities: Cádiz, Chiclana, El Puerto de Santa María, Puerto Réal, and San Fernando.- External links:**...

(Cádiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....

–Jerez de la Frontera
Jerez de la Frontera
Jerez de la Frontera is a municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, situated midway between the sea and the mountains. , the city, the largest in the province, had 208,896 inhabitants; it is the fifth largest in Andalusia...

) 615,494
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the capital , second-most populous city of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands and the 21st largest city in Spain, with a population of 222,417 in 2009...

573,825
Murcia
Murcia
-History:It is widely believed that Murcia's name is derived from the Latin words of Myrtea or Murtea, meaning land of Myrtle , although it may also be a derivation of the word Murtia, which would mean Murtius Village...

563,272
Palma 474,035
Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...

472,638
San Sebastián 402,168
Tarragona
Tarragona
Tarragona is a city located in the south of Catalonia on the north-east of Spain, by the Mediterranean. It is the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the capital of the Catalan comarca Tarragonès. In the medieval and modern times it was the capital of the Vegueria of Tarragona...

406,042
A Coruña
A Coruña
A Coruña or La Coruña is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. It is the second-largest city in the autonomous community and seventeenth overall in the country...

403,007
Valladolid
Valladolid
Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...

400,400
Santander
Santander, Cantabria
The port city of Santander is the capital of the autonomous community and historical region of Cantabria situated on the north coast of Spain. Located east of Gijón and west of Bilbao, the city has a population of 183,446 .-History:...

–Torrelavega
Torrelavega
Torrelavega is a municipality and important industrial and commercial hub in the single province Autonomous Community of Cantabria in northern Spain....

391,480
Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...

323,600
Pamplona
Pamplona
Pamplona is the historial capital city of Navarre, in Spain, and of the former kingdom of Navarre.The city is famous worldwide for the San Fermín festival, from July 6 to 14, in which the running of the bulls is one of the main attractions...

309,631

Islands

Islander population:

1. Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...

886,033
2. Majorca 846,210
3. Gran Canaria
Gran Canaria
Gran Canaria is the second most populous island of the Canary Islands, with a population of 838,397 which constitutes approximately 40% of the population of the archipelago...

829,597
4. Lanzarote
Lanzarote
Lanzarote , a Spanish island, is the easternmost of the autonomous Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 125 km off the coast of Africa and 1,000 km from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering 845.9 km2, it stands as the fourth largest of the islands...

132,366
5. Ibiza
Ibiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...

113,908
6. Fuerteventura
Fuerteventura
Fuerteventura , a Spanish island, is one of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. It is situated at 28°20' north, 14°00' west. At 1,660 km² it is the second largest of the Canary Islands, after Tenerife...

94,386
7. Minorca
Minorca
Min Orca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....

86,697
8. La Palma
La Palma
La Palma is the most north-westerly of the Canary Islands. La Palma has an area of 706 km2 making it the fifth largest of the seven main Canary Islands...

85,933
9. La Gomera
La Gomera
La Gomera is one of Spain's Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. In area, it is the second-smallest of the seven main islands of this group.- Political organization :...

22,259
10. El Hierro
El Hierro
El Hierro, nicknamed Isla del Meridiano , is the smallest and farthest south and west of the Canary Islands , in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, with a population of 10,162 .- Name :The name El Hierro, although phonetically identical to the Spanish word for 'iron', is generally thought...

10,558
11. Formentera
Formentera
Formentera is the smaller and more southerly island of the Pine Islands group , which belongs to the Balearic Islands autonomous community .-Geography:...

7,957
12. Arousa
A Illa de Arousa
A Illa de Arousa is the only island municipality in Galicia, Spain in the province of Pontevedra.-External links:* Townhall of Arousa Island**...

4,889
13. La Graciosa 658
14. Tabarca
Tabarca
Tabarca , is an islet located in the Mediterranean Sea, close to the town of Santa Pola, in the province of Alicante, Valencian community, Spain...

105
15. Ons
ONS
ONS may stand for:* ONS coding system* The Ons Island in Galicia, Spain.* Oberste Nationale Sportbehörde, former German motor racing governing body, now Deutscher Motor Sport Bund * Object Naming Service* Office for NATO Standardization...

61

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

Population

46,525,002 (July 2010 est.)

Age structure (2008 est.)

0-14 years:
14.4% (male 3,423,861/female 3,232,028)

15-64 years:
69.1% (male 16,185,5575/female 15,683,433)

65 years and over:
16.5% (male 3,238,301/female 4,394,624) (2008 est.)

Sex ratio

at birth:
1.07 male(s)/female

under 15 years:
1.06 male(s)/female

15-64 years:
1.01 male(s)/female

65 years and over:
0.72 male(s)/female

total population:
0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

total population:
79.65 years

male:
76.32 years

female:
83.2 years (2006 est.)

Ethnic groups

Definition of ethnicity or nationality in Spain is fraught politically. The term "Spanish people

Spanish people

The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....

" (pueblo español) is defined in the 1978 constitution as the political sovereign, i.e. the citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. The same constitution in its preamble speaks of "peoples and nationalities of Spain" (pueblos y nacionalides de España) and their respective cultures, traditions, languages and institutions.

The CIA Factbook (2011) gives a racial description of "composite of Mediterranean

Mediterranean race

The Mediterranean race was one of the three sub-categories into which the Caucasian race and the people of Europe were divided by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, following the publication of William Z. Ripley's book The Races of Europe...

and Nordic types" under "ethnic groups" instead of the usual breakdown of ethnic composition.
This reflects the formation of the modern Kingdom of Spain by the accretion of several independent Iberian

Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...

realms, i.e. Asturias

Kingdom of Asturias

The Kingdom of Asturias was a Kingdom in the Iberian peninsula founded in 718 by Visigothic nobles under the leadership of Pelagius of Asturias. It was the first Christian political entity established following the collapse of the Visigothic kingdom after Islamic conquest of Hispania...

, León

Kingdom of León

The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...

, Galicia

Kingdom of Galicia

The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Founded by Suebic king Hermeric in the year 409, the Galician capital was established in Braga, being the first kingdom which...

, Castile

Kingdom of Castile

Kingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region...

, Navarre

Kingdom of Navarre

The Kingdom of Navarre , originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a European kingdom which occupied lands on either side of the Pyrenees alongside the Atlantic Ocean....

, Aragon

Kingdom of Aragon

The Kingdom of Aragon was a medieval and early modern kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon, in Spain...

, Catalonia, Majorca

Kingdom of Majorca

The Kingdom of Majorca was founded by James I of Aragon, also known as James The Conqueror. After the death of his first-born son Alfonso, a will was written in 1262 which created the kingdom in order to cede it to his son James...

, Valencia

Kingdom of Valencia

The Kingdom of Valencia , located in the eastern shore of the Iberian Peninsula, was one of the component realms of the Crown of Aragon. When the Crown of Aragon merged by dynastic union with the Crown of Castile to form the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of Valencia became a component realm of the...

, Granada. The individual nationalities or peoples of these lands are the Asturians

Asturian people

The Asturians are one of the nationalisms of Spain, issuing from the historical country of the Principality of Asturias. They have Celtiberian heritage, related to its historical and cultural links with neighbouring Galicia, as well as Visigothic cultural influences most notably found in the...

, Leonese

Leonese people

The Leoneses are an ethnic group whose homeland is the former Kingdom of León, now region of Leon which was a country in Southwestern Europe, embracing a territory situated in the north-west of Spain and northeast of Portugal. The languages of León are the Leonese language and Spanish in Spain and...

, Galicians

Galician people

The Galicians are an ethnic group, a nationality whose historical homeland is Galicia in north-western Spain. Most Galicians are bilingual, speaking both their historic language, Galician, and Castilian Spanish.-Political and administrative divisions:...

, Basques

Basque people

The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...

, Cantabrians

Cantabrian people

The Cantabrians are an ethnic group living in the historical region of Cantabria, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Sometimes they are referred to as "montañeses" in English "Highlander"...

, Castilians

Castilian people

The Castilian people are the inhabitants of those regions in Spain where most people identify themselves as Castilian. They include Castile-La Mancha, Madrid, and the major part of Castile and León. However, not all regions of the medieval Kingdom of Castile think of themselves as Castilian...

, Aragonese

Aragonese people

The Aragonese are an ethnic group or nation living in the historical region of Aragon, between the centre and the north-east of Spain. Their native Aragonese language, which might have been spoken in the whole of the Kingdom of Aragon in the Middle Ages, is nowadays a seriously endangered language,...

, Catalans

Catalan people

The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...

, and Andalusians

Andalusian people

The Andalusians are the people of the southern region in Spain approximated by what is now called Andalusia. They are generally not considered an ethnically distinct people because they lack two of the most important markers of distinctiveness: their own language and an awareness of a presumed...

.

The native Canarian

Canarian people

The Canarians are an ethnic group living in the archipelago of the Canary Islands , near the coast of Western Africa...

s are the descendants of the population of the Canary Islands

Canary Islands

prior to Spanish colonization in the 15th century.
Also included are many Spaniard citizens who are descendents of people from Spain's former colonies, mostly from Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea where the capital Malabo is situated.Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

, Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

, Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, Morocco

Morocco

and the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. There is also a sizeable number of Spaniards of Middle Eastern, Eastern European, African and Chinese

Chinese people

The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....

origins.

Native-born Spanish citizens of all races and ethnic groups make up 88% of the total population, and 12% are immigrants. Among the immigrants, around 57% of them come from Spain's former colonies in Latin America (including those from Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

and Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

), Africa and Asia. The rest are mostly Eastern European (especially Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

ns, Russians

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

, Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

ns, Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

ns, Bosnians

Bosnians

Bosnians are people who reside in, or come from, Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the modern state definition a Bosnian can be anyone who holds citizenship of the state. This includes, but is not limited to, members of the constituent ethnic groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks, Bosnian Serbs and...

, Ukrainians

Ukrainians

Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...

and Albanians

Albanians

Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...

), North and West Africans (notably Moroccans, Algerians

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

, Senegalese, Nigerians and Cameroon

Cameroon

Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...

ians), Middle Eastern peoples including the Lebanese

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

and Syrian communities, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

ns, Pakistanis and Chinese, as well as a sizeable number of citizens from the European Union, as of 2007 mostly Romanians, British

British people

The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

, Bulgarians

Bulgarians

The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...

, Portuguese

Portuguese people

The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

, Polish

Poles

thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...

, and Germans

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

Religions

Roman Catholicism is the largest religion

Religion

in the country by far. According to a July 2009 study by the Spanish Center of Sociological Research about 70% of Spaniards self-identify as Catholics, 10% other faith, and about 20% identify with no religion

Irreligion

Irreligion is defined as an absence of religion or an indifference towards religion. Sometimes it may also be defined more narrowly as hostility towards religion. When characterized as hostility to religion, it includes antitheism, anticlericalism and antireligion. When characterized as...

. Most Spaniards do not participate regularly in religious services. This same study shows that of the Spaniards who identify themselves as religious, 58% hardly ever or never go to church, 17% go to church some times a year, 9% some time per month and 15% every Sunday or multiple times per week. But according to a December 2006 study, 48% of the population declared a belief in a supreme being, while 41% described themselves as atheist or agnostic.

Languages

Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

100% (89% mother tongue ) (official nationwide)
Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

16% (9% mother tongue ) (co-official in Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

, Balearic Islands
Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...

, and Valencia — see Valencian
Valencian
Valencian is the traditional and official name of the Catalan language in the Valencian Community. There are dialectical differences from standard Catalan, and under the Valencian Statute of Autonomy, the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua has been established as its regulator...

)
Galician
Galician language
Galician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...

7% (5% mother tongue ) (co-official in Galicia)
Basque
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...

1.6% (1% mother tongue ) (co-official in Basque Country
Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....

and designated areas in Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...

).
Aranese (a variant of Gascon Occitan) is co-official in Val d'Aran
Val d'Aran
The Val d'Aran is a valley in the Pyrenees mountains and a comarca in the northwestern part of the province of Lleida, in Catalonia, northern Spain. Most of the valley constitutes the only part of Spain, and of Catalonia, on the north face of the Pyrenees, hence the only part of Catalonia whose...

, a small valley in the Pyreenes.

Others with no official status:

Asturian-Leonese (in the former Kingdom of León
Kingdom of León
The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...

and Asturias
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...

)
Aragonese
Aragonese language
Aragonese is a Romance language now spoken in a number of local varieties by between 10,000 and 30,000 people over the valleys of the Aragón River, Sobrarbe and Ribagorza in Aragon, Spain...

(in the province of Huesca
Huesca (province)
Huesca , officially Huesca/Uesca, is a province of northeastern Spain, in northern Aragon. The capital is Huesca.Positioned just south of the central Pyrenees, Huesca borders France and the French Departments of Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyrénées...

, Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...

)

Literacy

definition:
age 15 and over can read and write

total population:
97.9% (2003 est.)

male:
98.7% (2003 est.)

female:
97.2% (2003 est.)

Educational system

About 70% of Spain's student

Student

A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...

population attends public schools or universities. The remainder attend private schools or universities, some of which are operated by the Catholic Church.

Compulsory education begins with primary school or general basic education for ages 6–16. It is free in public schools and in many private schools, most of which receive government

Government

Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

subsidies

Subsidy

A subsidy is an assistance paid to a business or economic sector. Most subsidies are made by the government to producers or distributors in an industry to prevent the decline of that industry or an increase in the prices of its products or simply to encourage it to hire more labor A subsidy (also...

. Following graduation, students attend either a secondary school offering a general high school diploma or a school of professional study in all fields — law, sciences, humanities, and medicine — and the superior technical schools offer programs in engineering and architecture.

External links

Spanish Instituto Nacional de Estadística Statistical data about demography and population

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Immigration and Demographic Issues

Vital statistics

Metropolitan areas

Islands

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

Population

Age structure (2008 est.)

Sex ratio

Life expectancy at birth

Ethnic groups

Religions

Languages

Literacy

Educational system

See also

External links