Spain (officially: Reino de Espana, = Kingdom of Spain), a kingdom in western Europe and is located on the Iberian Peninsula which also includes Portugal. The total area of Spain is 505,782 km2, including the Balearic Islands, Pityusen and the Canary Islands. Spain takes more than four fifths of the Iberian Peninsula. Spain, after Russia, France and Ukraine the fourth country in Europe. Belong to Spain in addition to the aforementioned island groups also called the Plazas Soberanía el Norte and the Africa, including the Plazas mayores: Ceuta and Melilla menores and Plazas: Penone de los Velez, Penone the Alhucemas and the Islas Chafarinas. Spain is bordered in the north Andorra (64 km) and France (623 km), in the west to Portugal (1214 km), and in the south to Gibraltar (1.2 km). The total coastline is 4964 kilometers. Spain has largely natural boundaries: mountains, coast and rivers. The Balearic Islands consist of several islands, including the famous holiday destinations Majorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The thirteen Canary Islands lie off the coast of Morocco. They are of volcanic origin and the most famous holiday destinations are the islands of Tenerife, Gran Canaria, La Palma, Gomera, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. Spain also owns another two enclaves in Morocco, Melilla and Ceuta, which in 1995 acquired a limited autonomy.
The Spanish population has since the end of Reconquista (± 1500) a fairly diverse background. Because of population movements and the melting together of different people since prehistory the Mediterranean type occur, the most common in Spain. The early ancestors of these people include Iberians, Phoenicians, Romans, Sueven, Alan, Visigoths, Berbers, Celts, Ligures and Vandals. Exceptions are the inhabitants of the Basque provinces and the eastern part of Asturias, where an alpine type, the most common. At this moment one can see the following people: Castilian (72.3%), Catalans (18%), Galicia (6%), Basque (1.5%), gypsies or gitanos, (1.3%).
The birth rate in 2001 was 9.26%, the average annual population growth in the period 1985-1995 0.2% (2001 0.1%). The population growth in the European Union in 1999 was 2.6 per 1000 inhabitants, of which 0.7% natural growth and 1.9 for migration; for Spain these figures were 0.0% and 0.9%. The high birth rate for 1980 and the very low after after the Spanish population is aging much faster than in other Western countries. At present, more than 17% of the population 65 years or older. If these trends were to continue then Spain in 2050, only 30 million inhabitants.
The population of Spain is very unevenly distributed around the country. Average living in Spain about 78 inhabitants per km2. Spain is one of the least densely populated countries of the European Union after Ireland, Sweden and Finland. Because of the enormous pull to the cities since 1950 lived about 77% of the population in cities. The closest populated area around the capital Madrid with approximately 625 inhabitants per km2. Around Madrid are four regions that average less than 30 inhabitants per km2 have: Castilla Leon, Extremadura, Castilla La Mancha and Aragón.
Overall living quarter of the population within the country and three quarters of the population in the coastal provinces. The four most populous provinces are Madrid, Barcelona, Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa. In forty of the fifty provinces of the population is declining. The population of the province of Teruel fell from 265,000 in 1910 to some of the harrowing but 136,500 in 1999.
From the sixteenth century Spain is an emigration country, so are millions of Spaniards over the centuries emigrated to Spanish America. This emigration wave lasted until around 1930. From 1960, the emigration again. Now it was the guest workers who were working in Europe, including in the Netherlands. In 2000, there are approximately 2.5 million Spaniards abroad. As a country of immigration came from Spain in 1980 image and especially Portuguese-South Americans and North Africans withdrew whether or not illegal in Spain.
The number of foreigners legally adopted in recent years by leaps and bounds:
The number of illegals is estimated at 250,000. The problems with illegal foreigners take commonplace in the province of Andalusia and the Canary Islands where many Africans daily by people smugglers to be smuggled into the country. Many do not even reach the coast and drown because their rickety boats sink. In Spain, about 500,000 Gypsies live. Half of them are the so-called "beticos" from Andalusia. Another large group are the "Catalanes" in Catalonia. These groups are generally the best integrated into Spanish society.