Snapshot Profile of Spain

• Full name: Kingdom of Spain
  
  
• Population: 44.7 million (official figure, 2007)
  
  
• Administrative Capital: Madrid
  
  
• Timezone: GMT + 1 hour, BST + 1 hour
  
  
• Area: 505,988 sq km (195,363 sq miles)
  
  
• Sunshine: c. 335 days
  
  
• Coastline: 4964 kilometres
   
• Main religion: Roman Catholic 99%
  
  
• Major languages: Spanish (Castilian), Catalan, Valencian, Gallego (Galician), Euskera (Basque)
  
  
• Administrative Divisions: 17 autonomous regions – Andalucia,Aragon,Asturias,Balearics,Basque,Canary Islands,Castile & Leon,La Mancha,Cantabria,Catalunya,Extremadura,Galicia,La Rioja,Madrid,Murcia,Navarre,Valencia
  
  
• Internet Domain:   .es (.cat for Catalonia)
  
  
• International Dialling Code: +34
  
  
• GDP: $548 Billion
  
  
• Economic Growth: 3.8%*
  
  
• Labour Force: 22 million *
  
  
• Unemployment: 7.6% *
  
  
• Inflation: 2.4%*
  
  
• FDI: $17 billion+ (main investors USA, UK)
  
  
• Average Wage: €18,182 p.a.#
  
  
• Monetary unit: 1 euro = 100 cents
  
  
• Main exports: Textiles & apparel (including footwear), food & beverages, metals chemicals, automobiles, machine tools, tourism, agricultural produce, transport
  
  
• Member of EU: Since 1986

For a fuller overview of Spain, go to Spain's STEP Country Profile to give you more in-depth information of the Social, Technological, Economic and Political profile for the country.

To give you more background as to why you might consider investing in Spain, go to the Why Invest in Spain Section, or maybe look at the individual towns and cities profiled in each country's Towns section.

To see what property is available in Spain, go to Spanish Property

Sources: * CIA World Factbook, National Statistics Office, IMF, #Eurofound, IFS, WDI (2004), Eurostat ’07, BBC.co.uk, wikipedia.org, National Statistics Institute, Industry Watch, Barcelona Reporter