Spain
Land area: Total: 504,782 sq km
Population: 40.5 million (July 2009 est.)
Labour force: 23.1 million (2008 est.)
Occupations: Agriculture:4% industry:26.4% services:69.5% (2008)
Languages: Castilian Spanish (official) 74%, Catalan 17%, Galician 7%, Basque 2%, are official regionally
Capital: Madrid
Head of State: King JUAN CARLOS I
Head of government: President of the Government (Prime Minister equivalent) Jose Luis Rodriguez ZAPATERO
National holiday: National Day, 12 October (1492); year when Columbus first set foot in the Americas.
Economy: The Spanish economy grew every year from 1994 through 2008 before entering a recession that started in the third quarter of 2008. Spain's mixed capitalist economy supports a GDP that on a per capita basis is approaching that of the largest West European economies.
The Spanish banking system is considered solid, thanks in part to conservative oversight by the European Central Bank, and government intervention to rescue banks on the scale seen elsewhere in Europe in 2008 was not necessary.
Imports: £9,986 million from the UK (2008)
Industries: Textiles and apparel (including footwear), food and beverages, metals and metal manufactures, chemicals, shipbuilding, automobiles, machine tools, tourism, clay and refractory products, footwear, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment.
Inflation: 1.4% (2008 est.)
Did you know... The Tomatina tomato fight is one of the most famous of Spain's bizarre festivals, but it isn't the only time the Spanish throw things at each other.
In Lanjarón in the Alpujarras (near Granada), the locals have a giant water fight each June 24.
A little stickier is the Batalla del Vino in Horo, La Rioja each June 29, where the locals fight each other with wine. Its OK, they make lots of it in La Rioja, Spain's most important wine region, so there's plenty to spare.
