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Coordinates: 40°N 4°W

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"España" redirects here. For other uses, see Spain (disambiguation) and España
(disambiguation).

Kingdom of Spain
Reino de España (Spanish)
show
7 other names[a]

Flag

Coat of arms

Motto: Plus ultra (Latin)

(English: "Further Beyond")

Anthem: Marcha Real (Spanish)[1]

(English: "Royal March")

Duration: 54 seconds.0:54
 Show globeShow map of EuropeShow all

Location of Spain (dark green)

– in Europe (green & dark grey)

– in the European Union (green)

Capital Madrid
and largest city 40°26′N 3°42′W

Official language Spanish[b]

Nationality (2024  86.5% Spanish

) [3]
 13.5% foreigners

Religion  56.0% Roman Catholicism

(2023)[4] o
 37.5% non-
practicing Catholic
 16.5%
practicing Catholic
 14.9% atheist
 12.6% agnostic
 12.3% indifferent or no religion
 2.7% other religion
 1.5% unanswered

Demonym(s)  Spaniard
 Spanish

Government Unitary parliamentary constitutional

monarchy

• Monarch Felipe VI
• Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez
• President of the Francina Armengol
Congress of
Deputies
• President of the Pedro Rollán
Senate

Legislature Cortes Generales

• Upper house Senate

• Lower house Congress of Deputies

Formation
• Dynastic Union 20 January 1479
• Sole Sovereign 14 March 1516
• Centralized State 9 June 1715
• First Constitution 19 March 1812
• Current 29 December 1978
Constitution
• EEC Accession[c] 1 January 1986

Area
• Total 505,990[5] km2 (195,360 sq mi) (51st)
• Water (%) 0.89[6]

Population
• 2024 estimate 48,692,804[7] (30th)
• Density 97/km2 (251.2/sq mi) (121th)

GDP (PPP) 2024 estimate

• Total $2.516 trillion[8] (15th)

• Per capita $52,012[8] (37th)

GDP (nominal) 2024 estimate

• Total $1.647 trillion[8] (15th)

• Per capita $34,045[8] (32nd)

Gini (2022) 32.0[9]

medium

HDI (2022) 0.911[10]

very high (27th)

Currency Euro[d] (€) (EUR)

 Time zone UTC±0 to +1 (WET and CET)
• Summer (DST) UTC+1 to +2 (WEST and CEST)
Note: most of Spain observes CET/CEST,
except the Canary Islands which observe
WET/WEST.

Date format dd/mm/yyyy (CE)

Driving side right

Calling code +34

ISO 3166 code ES

Internet TLD .es[e]

Spain,[f] or the Kingdom of Spain,[g][h] is a country located in Southwestern Europe,

with parts of its territory in the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and Africa.[11]
[i]
It is the largest country in Southern Europe and the fourth-most
populous European Union member state. Spanning across the majority of
the Iberian Peninsula, its territory also includes the Canary Islands in the Atlantic
Ocean, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, and the autonomous
cities of Ceuta and Melilla in Africa. Peninsular Spain is bordered to the north
by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; to the east and south by the
Mediterranean Sea and Gibraltar; and to the west by Portugal and the Atlantic
Ocean. Spain's capital and largest city is Madrid, and other major urban
areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, Seville, Málaga, Murcia, Palma de
Mallorca, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and Bilbao.
In early antiquity, the Iberian Peninsula was inhabited by Celtic and Iberian tribes,
along with other local pre-Roman peoples. With the Roman conquest of the Iberian
Peninsula, the province of Hispania was established. Following
the Romanization and Christianization of Hispania, the fall of the Western Roman
Empire ushered in the inward migration of tribes from Central Europe, including
the Visigoths, who formed the Visigothic Kingdom centred on Toledo. In the early
eighth century, most of the peninsula was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate,
and during early Islamic rule, Al-Andalus became a dominant peninsular power
centred in Córdoba. Several Christian kingdoms emerged in Northern Iberia, chief
among them Asturias, León, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Portugal; made an
intermittent southward military expansion and repopulation, known as
the Reconquista, repelling Islamic rule in Iberia, which culminated with the
Christian seizure of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada in 1492. The dynastic union of
the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon in 1479 under the Catholic
Monarchs is often considered the de facto unification of Spain as a nation-state.
During the Age of Discovery, Spain pioneered the exploration of the New
World and the first circumnavigation of the globe.[12] At the same time, it formed one
of the largest empires in history through colonization. The Spanish empire reached
a global scale and spread across continents, underpinning the rise of a global
trading system fueled primarily by precious metals. The 18th century was marked
by extensive reforms and, notably, the Bourbon reforms centralized mainland
Spain.[13] In the 19th century, after the Napoleonic occupation and the
victorious Spanish War of independence, the following political divisions
between liberals and absolutists led to the breakaway of most of the American
colonies. These political divisions finally converged in the 20th century with
the Spanish Civil War, giving rise to the Francoist dictatorship that lasted until
1975. With the restoration of democracy and its entry into the European Union, the
country experienced an economic boom that profoundly transformed it socially and
politically. Since the Siglo de Oro, Spanish
art, architecture, music, poetry, painting, literature, and cuisine have been
influential worldwide, particularly in Western Europe and the Americas. Spain is
one of the main nations of Latin Europe and a cultural superpower.[14][15] As a
reflection of its large cultural wealth, Spain is the world's second-most visited
country, has one of the world's largest numbers of World Heritage Sites, and it is
the most popular destination for European students.[16] Its cultural influence extends
to over 600 million Hispanophones, making Spanish the world's second-most
spoken native language and the world's most widely spoken Romance language.[17]
Spain is a secular parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy,[18] with
King Felipe VI as head of state. It is a major advanced capitalist economy,[19] with
the world's fifteenth-largest economy by nominal GDP (fourth of the European
Union) and the fifteenth-largest by PPP. Spain is a member of the United Nations,
the European Union, the eurozone, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a
permanent guest of the G20, and is part of many other international organizations
such as the Council of Europe (CoE), the Organization of Ibero-American
States (OEI), the Union for the Mediterranean, the Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD), the Organization for Security and Co-
operation in Europe (OSCE), and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Etymology
The name of Spain (España) comes from Hispania, the name used by the Romans
for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces during the Roman Empire. The
etymological origin of the term Hispania is uncertain, although the Phoenicians
referred to the region as Spania (meaning "Land of rabbits"), therefore, the most
accepted theory is the Phoenician one.[20] There have been a number of accounts
and hypotheses about its origin:
Jesús Luis Cunchillos [es] argued that the root of the term span is
the Phoenician word spy, meaning "to forge metals". Therefore, i-spn-ya would
mean "the land where metals are forged".[21] It may be a derivation of the
Phoenician I-Shpania, meaning "island of rabbits", "land of rabbits" or "edge", a
reference to Spain's location at the end of the Mediterranean; Roman coins struck
in the region from the reign of Hadrian show a female figure with a rabbit at her
feet,[22] and Strabo called it the "land of the rabbits".[23] The word in question actually
means "Hyrax", possibly due to the Phoenicians confusing the two animals.[24]
There is also the claim that "Hispania" derives from the Basque word Ezpanna,
meaning "edge" or "border", another reference to the fact that the Iberian
Peninsula constitutes the southwest corner of the European continent.[25]
History
Main article: History of Spain
Prehistory and pre-Roman peoples
Main article: Prehistoric Iberia

Celtic castro in Galicia

Archaeological research at Atapuerca indicates the Iberian Peninsula was
populated by hominids 1.3 million years ago.[26] Archaeo-palaeontological records
in Sierra de Atapuerca, inside the caves and in the open-air sites, have confirmed
a continuous settlement from the Lower Pleistocene (Lower Paleolithic) to the
Holocene (Bronze Age), with several species of hominids (Homo
antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis y Homo sapiens)
exploiting the same territory.[27][28][29] According to these authors, in the surroundings
of Sierra de Atapuerca, the archaeological consequence of the continuous
territorial occupation of the same area from 1.3 Ma to the Bronze Age (2100-850
cal. BC) has been the deposition of hundreds of open-air sites, with campsites,
flintknapping workshops and other sites with complementary economic activities.[30]
[31][32]

In the Iberian Peninsula Oldowan stone tools (Mode 1) have been found at the
following sites (caves and open-air sites): Fuente Nueva 3 (Orce, Granada),
Barranco León (Orce, Granada), Sima del Elefante (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos),
Gran Dolina TD6 (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos) and in other open-air sites.[27] The
archaeo-palaeontological records in Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain) from
Lower Paleolithic have provided Oldowan stone tools associated with Homo
antecessor (Gran Dolina site, TD6 level, ca. 800,000 years BP)[27]
Acheulean stone tools (Mode 2) have been found in the Middle Pleistocene caves
and in open-air sites of the main valleys (i.e., Quaternary terraces of the rivers
Ebro, Duero, Arlanzón, Arlanza, Pisuerga, Miño, Tormes, Tajo, Guadiana,
Guadalquivir, etc.)[27] The archaeo-palaeontological records in Sierra de
Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain) from Lower Paleolithic have provided Acheulean tools
associated with Homo heidelbergensis (ca. 450,000 years BP)[27]
Mousterian stone tools (Mode 3) have been found in the Middle and Upper
Pleistocene caves and in open-air sites of the main valleys.[27] The archaeo-
palaeontological records in the Sierra de Atapuerca caves (Burgos, Spain) from
Middle Paleolithic (i.e., Galería de las Estatuas y Cueva Fantasma sites) have
provided Mousterian stone tools associated with Homo neanderthalensis (ca.
250,000 to 30,000 years BP).[27]
Modern humans first arrived in Iberia from the north on foot about 35,000 years
ago.[33][failed verification] The best-known artefacts of these prehistoric human settlements are
the paintings in the Altamira cave of Cantabria in northern Iberia, which were
created from 35,600 to 13,500 BCE by Cro-Magnon.[34][35] Archaeological and
genetic evidence suggests that the Iberian Peninsula acted as one of several major
refugia from which northern Europe was repopulated following the end of the last
ice age.
The Iberian Epipaleolithic, —also described as Mesolithic—, is divided into three
stages from 9300 cal. BC to 5200 cal BC. The Neolithic began on the Iberian
Peninsula in 5700/5600 cal. BC according to several sites in the Levant area of the
Peninsula. On the Northern Iberian Plateau is present in the karst records and the
open air sites from the last third of the VI millennium cal. BC. [27][28][29]
According to radiocarbon datings, the Pre-Bell Beaker Chalcolithic began on the
Northern Iberian Plateau in 3000 cal. BC and the Bell Beaker Chalcolithic
appeared around 2500 cal. BC. The Early Bronze Age began on the Northern
Iberian Plateau in 2100 cal. BC and Late Bronze Age in 1350 cal. BC. In the three
phases of the Iberian Bronze Age, different cultures emerged, which have been
defined by regions with typical names: e.g. El Argar, Las Motillas, Bronce
Atlántico, Bronce Valenciano, Montelavar, Las Cogotas and others. The Iron
Age began in 850/800 cal. BC.[27][28]
The two largest groups inhabiting the Iberian Peninsula before the Roman
conquest were the Iberians and the Celts. The Iberians inhabited the
Mediterranean side of the peninsula. The Celts inhabited much of the interior and
Atlantic sides of the peninsula. Basques occupied the western area of the
Pyrenees mountain range and adjacent areas; Phoenician-
influenced Tartessians flourished in the southwest;
and Lusitanians and Vettones occupied areas in the central west. Several cities
were founded along the coast by Phoenicians, and trading outposts and colonies
were established by Greeks in the East. Eventually, Phoenician-
Carthaginians expanded inland towards the meseta; however, due to the bellicose
inland tribes, the Carthaginians settled on the coasts of the Iberian Peninsula.
Roman Hispania and the Visigothic Kingdom
Main articles: Hispania and Visigothic Kingdom
 The Roman Theatre in Mérida
During the Second Punic War, roughly between 210 and 205 BCE, the
expanding Roman Republic captured Carthaginian trading colonies along the
Mediterranean coast. Although it took the Romans nearly two centuries to
complete the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, they retained control of it for over
six centuries. Roman rule was bound together by law, language, and the Roman
road.[36]
The cultures of the pre-Roman populations were gradually Romanised (Latinised)
at different rates depending on what part of the peninsula they lived in, with local
leaders being admitted into the Roman aristocratic class.[j][37]
Hispania served as a granary for the Roman market, and its harbours exported
gold, wool, olive oil, and wine. Agricultural production increased with the
introduction of irrigation projects, some of which remain in use.
Emperors Hadrian, Trajan, Theodosius I, and the philosopher Seneca were born in
Hispania.[k] Christianity was introduced into Hispania in the 1st century CE, and it
became popular in the cities in the 2nd century.[37] Most of Spain's present
languages and religions, as well as the basis of its laws, originate from this period.
[36]
Starting in 170 CE, incursions of North-African Mauri in the province
of Baetica took place.[38]

Votive crown of Reccesuinth from the Treasure of

Guarrazar
The Germanic Suebi and Vandals, together with the Sarmatian Alans, entered the
peninsula after 409, weakening the Western Roman Empire's jurisdiction over
Hispania. The Suebi established a kingdom in north-western Iberia, whereas the
Vandals established themselves in the south of the peninsula by 420 before
crossing over to North Africa in 429. As the western empire disintegrated, the
social and economic base became greatly simplified; the successor regimes
maintained many of the institutions and laws of the late empire, including
Christianity and assimilation into the evolving Roman culture.
The Byzantines established an occidental province, Spania, in the south, with the
intention of reviving Roman rule throughout Iberia. Eventually, however, Hispania
was reunited under Visigothic rule.
Muslim era and Reconquista
See also: Umayyad conquest of Hispania, Al-Andalus, and Reconquista
From 711 to 718, as part of the expansion of the Umayyad Caliphate, which
had conquered North Africa from the Byzantine Empire, nearly all of the Iberian
Peninsula was conquered by Muslims from across the Strait of Gibraltar, resulting
in the collapse of the Visigothic Kingdom. Only a small area in the mountainous
north of the peninsula stood out of the territory seized during the initial invasion.
The Kingdom of Asturias-León consolidated upon this territory. Other Christian
kingdoms such as Navarre and Aragon in the mountainous north eventually surged
upon the consolidation of counties of the Carolingian Marca Hispanica.[39] For
several centuries, the fluc