Spain
is located in southwestern Europe bordering France,
Andorra, and Portugal and just across the Strait of
Gibraltar from Morocco.
It is slightly more than twice the size of Oregon.
Spain is a parliamentary monarchy headed by King Juan Carlos I. The capital is Madrid which is close to the geographic center of the country. The Spanish peseta was replaced on January 1, 1999 by the Euro.
The July 2006 estimate of the population was 40,397,842. Spain has a very slight (.13 percent) population growth probably due to a low birth rate. The current life expectancy is 79.65 years with women outliving men by approximately seven years.
Castilian Spanish is the official national language although Catalan, Galician, and Basque are official regional languages. Spain has a very high literacy rate: 97.9 percent of people over the age of 15 can read and write. Roman Catholic is the predominate religion.
Major geographic features include the Pyrenees Mountains on the northern border with France and Andorra and the Strait of Gibraltar to the south.
Web Sites
Catalog
Search the library's catalog for Spain: Description and Travel.
Databases
Enter Spain in these databases: