Population 46.77 million (2014) Life expectancy 82.38 years (2012) Official language Spanish | Unemployment rate 22.7% (Apr 2015) GNI per capita 32,030 PPP dollars (2012) | |
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Fertility rate 1.32 births per woman (2012) Population growth rate -0.2% annual change (2013) | ||
As of January 1, 2014, Spain had a total population of 46,507,760, which represents a 0.5% decrease since 2013. The CIA Factbook (2011) gives a racial description of "composite of Mediterranean 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 realms, i.e., León, Castile, Navarre, the Crown of Aragon, Granada, etc. Spain's population peaked in 2012, at 46,818,216 people. Spain's official population fell by 206,000 to 47.1 million, mostly because of immigrants returning home due to the effects of the European economic and fiscal crisis. Its population density, at 91.4 inhabitants per square kilometre (237/sq mi), is lower than that of most Western European countries. With the exception of the capital Madrid, the most densely populated areas lie around the coast.
Contents
- Map of Spain
- Immigration and Demographic Issues
- Vital statistics
- Current vital statistics
- Metropolitan areas
- Islands
- CIA World Factbook demographic statistics
- Population
- Age structure 2008 est
- Sex ratio
- Infant mortality rate
- Life expectancy at birth
- Total fertility rate
- Nationality
- Ethnic groups
- Religions
- Languages
- Literacy
- Educational system
- References
Map of Spain
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 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. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 abolished the Roman Catholic Church 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 in the world, only above Greece, Portugal, Hungary, Ukraine, and Japan.
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 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, and half 760,000 were Moroccan while the number of Ecuadorians was around 390,000. Colombian 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, Málaga provinces, Balearic Islands and Canary Islands. 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.
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 7% were foreign.
Vital statistics
Notable events in modern Spanish demography:
Current vital statistics
Metropolitan areas
The largest metropolitan areas in 2007 were:
- Madrid 6,489,162
- Barcelona 5,375,774
- Valencia 1,705,742
- Seville 1,519,639
- Bilbao 950,155
- Málaga 897,563
- Asturias (Gijón–Oviedo–Avilés) 857,079
- Alicante–Elche 748,565
- Zaragoza 731,803
- Vigo - Pontevedra 662,412
- Las Palmas 616,903
- Bahía de Cádiz (Cádiz–Jerez de la Frontera) 615,494
- Santa Cruz de Tenerife 573,825
- Murcia 563,272
- Palma 474,035
- Granada 472,638
- San Sebastián 402,168
- Tarragona 406,042
- A Coruña 403,007
- Valladolid 400,400
- Santander–Torrelavega 391,480
- Córdoba 323,600
- Pamplona 309,631
Islands
Islander population:
CIA World Factbook demographic statistics
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Population
46,529,002 (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 16,185,575/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.)
Infant mortality rate
4.37 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)
Life expectancy at birth
Spain is, according to the OECD "Health at a glance report 2013", second in Europe and fourth worldwide in terms of life expectancy at birth.
total population: 82.4 years (Source: OECD 2013 "Health at a glance" report)
male: 78.8 years (Source: OECD 2013 "Health at a glance" report)
female: 85.2 years (Source: OECD 2013 "Health at a glance" report)
Total fertility rate
1.47 children born/woman (2010 est.)
Nationality
noun: Spaniard(s)
adjective: Spanish
Ethnic groups
Definition of ethnicity or nationality in Spain is fraught politically. The term "Spanish people" (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 nacionalidades de España) and their respective cultures, traditions, languages and institutions. The formerly nomadic Gitanos and Mercheros are distinctly marked by endogamy and discrimination but they are dispersed through the country.
The native Canarians are the descendants of the population of the 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, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Morocco and the Philippines. There is also a sizable number of Spaniards of Eastern European, Maghrebian, Sub Saharan-African, South Asian and Middle Eastern descent.
Native-born Spanish citizens of all ethnic groups make up 86% of the total population, and 14% are immigrants. Among the immigrants, around 57% of them come from Spain's former colonies in Latin America (including those from Cuba, Argentina, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Chile and Uruguay), Africa and Philippines (Southeast Asia). The rest are mostly Eastern European (especially Romanians, Bulgarians, Russians, Serbians, Croatians, Bosnians, Ukrainians and Albanians), North and West Africans (notably Moroccans, Algerians, Senegalese, Guineans, Nigerians and Cameroonians), Middle Eastern peoples including the Lebanese and Syrian communities, South Asians including Indians and Pakistanis, and Chinese, as well as a sizable number of citizens from the European Union, as of 2007 mostly Romanians, Bulgarians, British, Portuguese, Polish (central Europe), and Germans.
Religions
Roman Catholicism is the largest 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. 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.
Languages
Others with no official status:
Literacy
definition: age 15 and over can read and write. Total population: 97.7% Male: 98.5% Female: 97% (2010 est.)
Educational system
About 70% of Spain's student population attends public schools or universities. The remainder attend private schools or universities, many 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 subsidies. 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.