An Introduction to Spain
The Kingdom of Spain today includes the Mediterranean islands of the Balearics, the Canaries in the Atlantic, and a number of exclave cities, and is the fourth largest country in Europe by land area. Pan back a few hundred years, and the Spanish were masters of the seas and of the New World, and a pre-eminent global power. A legacy of this is that Spanish is today the second most-spoken native language, after Mandarin and just squeaking in ahead of English by a million or so. See full country profile.Latest Research News from Spain
1 current Spanish job:
GOVERNMENT: Unitary regional State parliamentary constitutional monarchy
AREA: 505,992 sq km
POPULATION: 47,190,493 (2011 est.)
MAJOR LANGUAGE: Official Language: Spanish
Some business and general info
The Market Research Industry
Trade and Industry in Spain
Spain however had a record as under-achievers in sport, until recently, while Italy was known either for talent and success, or at least for grinding out results. Not so in the 2010s: Spain have had the world's number one tennis player for much of the last five years in Rafa Nadal, and have just become the first European nation to win three footballing majors in succession - they are World Champions and double European Champions.
Spain is also the birthplace of the modern guitar, in the 15th and 16th centuries - something people of most musical tastes can thank it for. True, stringed instruments with some resemblance to guitars have been played almost all the way through ancient and modern history - according to Wikipedia, the oldest known iconographic representation of an instrument displaying the essential features of a guitar is a 3,300 year old stone carving of a Hittite bard. But the instruments of Eric Clapton, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana all developed from the Spanish variety - and of course, it was the Spanish composer Joaqun Rodrigo who penned the most popular classical guitar work, known to most as the Concerto de Aranjuez and to the cast of Brassed Off as Concerto de Orange Juice.
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The Kingdom of Spain today includes the Mediterranean islands of the Balearics, the Canaries in the Atlantic, and a number of exclave cities, and is the fourth largest country in Europe by land area. Pan back a few hundred years, and the Spanish were masters of the seas and of the New World, and a pre-eminent global power. A legacy of this is that Spanish is today the second most-spoken native language, after Mandarin and just squeaking in ahead of English by a million or so.
The Spanish conquered most of South America, much of the Caribbean, all of central America and some of the North too, most of it in the sixteenth century, and relinquished much of it again in the early 19th. In Europe, the country was a bastion of Roman Catholicism before and during the battle with protestant nations such as Holland and England, and is known for the bloody persecution of the Inquisition, which began in 1480.Civil War in the 1930s and the long rule of General Franco characterised Spain in the twentieth c'ntury, but by the end of it the country had restored democracy and a degree of economic stability, readied itself to join the Euro (2002), turned itself into the second biggest tourist destination in the world (worth c.EUR 40bn, 5% of GDP in 2006) and - between outbreaks of separatist terror activity - enjoyed periods of relative peace. Only since 2008 have a bursting property bubble and the ongoing global financial crisis exposed a creaking economy, which alongside Italy and Greece is giving European leaders sleepless nights.
GDP: $1.41 trillion (2011 est.); $30,625 per capita
Religions Roman Catholic 94%; other 6%
Currency: Euro
Telephone Code: + 34
MR Association(s):
Spanish Market Research Association (AEDEMO)
Spain is the 11th largest research market in the world, and the 5th largest in Europe. 79 percent of MR turnover comes from domestic clients and 21 percent from international. According to the ESOMAR Global Prices Study 2012 the country was the 22nd most expensive for carrying out research.
Source: ESOMAR
Spain still has the twelfth largest economy worldwide and the fifth largest in the EU - in the early 2000s it created more than half of all the new jobs in the EU, and was regarded as a dynamic system, attracting a great deal of foreign investment. Die Welt newspaper in 2007 reported that Spain was on course to overtake Germany in per capita income by 2011. All this was halted by the collapse of Spains housing boom in 2008 - the previous year construction had accounted for a remarkable 16% of GDP and 12% of employment - revealing a country heavily in debt, and soaring unemployment, high inflation and a loss of confidence have followed. The EU has in the last few months stepped in to help shore up the country's creaking banks, but Spain faces huge challenges, as does the EU as a whole if either it or Italy fails to achieve a turnaround in the next few years.
2011 exports were $330.6 bn, and key partners (with 2009 shares) are France 18.7%, Germany 10.7%, Portugal 9.1%, Italy 9% and the UK 6.3% - key commodities are machinery, motor vehicles, foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals. Imports - $384.6 bn in 2011 include similar plus fuels, semi-finished goods and consumer goods, with Germany (12.6% in 2009) and France (11.5%) the largest partners.
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laurence@mrweb.com
