Spain
...by the Bay of Biscay, France, and Andorra, and on the
east by the Mediterranean Sea. The Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and the
Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa are governed as
provinces of Spain. Also, Spain administers two small exclaves in MoroccoCeuta
and Melilla. The area of Spain, including the African and insular territories,
is 194,885 sq mi. Madrid is the capital and largest city.
Population
The Spanish people are essentially a mixture of the indigenous peoples of the
Iberian Peninsula with the successive peoples who conquered the peninsula and
occupied it for extended periods. These added ethnologic elements include the
Romans, a Mediterranean people, and the Suevi, Vandals, and Visigoths, Teutonic
peoples. Semitic elements are also present.
Population Characteristics
The population of Spain at the 1991 census was 38,872,268. The estimate for 1995
is 39,276,000, giving the country an overall density of about 202 per sq mi.
Spain is increasingly urban, with more than 80 percent of the population in
towns and cities.
Principal Cities
The capital and largest city is Madrid (population, greater city, 1991,
3,010,492), also the capital of Madrid autonomous region; the second largest
city, chief port, and commercial center is Barcelona, capital of Barcelona
province and Catalonia region. Other important cities include Valencia, capital
of Valencia province and Valencia region, a manufacturing and railroad center;
Seville, a cultural center; Saragossa, and Bilbao (369,839), a busy port.
Religion
Roman Catholicism is professed by about 97 percent of the population. The
country is divided into 11 metropolitan and 52 suffragan sees. In addition, the
archdioceses of Barcelona and Madrid are directly responsible to the Holy See.
Formerly, Roman Catholicism was the established church, but the 1978
constitution decreed...
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