Main Challenges

• Spain was in an economic recession from 2008 to 2013 and this, combined with significant cuts in government expenditure, resulted in poor policy outcomes.
• Spain still faces several challenges on the sustainability of its policy performance and the legitimacy of its political system.
• **The main strategic challenges for the future economic performance of Spain are still domestic – both on the fiscal front and, above all, in its capacity to create jobs.**
• Evidence suggests that the current Spanish education and R&D systems are hindering the move toward a more knowledge-based economy.
• The ageing population is another major challenge. The average Spaniard today lives 81.6 years, the birth rate is extremely low (1.3) and forecasts suggest that one-third of Spain’s population will be age 64 or over by 2050 (the proportion was 17.4% in 2012).

http://www.sgi-network.org/2014/Spain/Key_Challenges

 

 

Manufacturing & Service Industries

Types of Business Structures in Spain

There are many kinds of business entities in Spain...

The most frequently found legal structures are:

• Sole Trader/Sole Proprietor (Empresario Individual or Autónomo)
• Partnership (Sociedad Civil)
• Limited Liability Company (Sociedad Limitada/SL or Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada/SRL)
• Public Limited Company (Sociedad Anonima /SA)
• New Enterprise Limited Company (Sociedad Limitada Nueva Empresa/SLNE)
• Co-ownership (Comunidad de Bienes/CB)

http://spain.angloinfo.com/working/employment/

Service Industries:

-Hospitality
-Restaurant
-Customer service
-Agriculture

"Spain's dependence on agriculture has diminished in the last few decades, while tourism and other service industries have grown considerably in importance. In 1993 agriculture accounted for just 3.5% of GDP and employed some 10% of the workforce, almost half of the figure for 1985 and down from 27% in 1960 when around 40% of the population worked in agriculture). One third of the workforce is employed in industry, while services account for some 60% of jobs."

http://www.andalucia.com/spain/economy/home.htm

Agricultural Realm & Extraction Industry

Agriculture & Extractions

• Spain produces large crops of wheat, barley, vegetables, tomatoes, olives, sugar beets, citrus fruit, grapes, and cork. Spain is the world's largest producer of olive oil and Europe's largest producer of lemons, oranges, and strawberries.

• The best-known wine regions are those of Rioja, in the upper Ebro valley, and of Málaga and Jerez de la Frontera, in Andalusia. 
• 

 

 http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/world/spain-economy.html 

 

 

Extraction Industry 

The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Spanish global shipments during 2014. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Spain.

1. Vehicles: US$51.6 billion (16.2% of total exports)
2. Machines, engines, pumps: $24.4 billion (7.6%)
3. Oil: $23 billion (7.2%)
4. Electronic equipment: $17.2 billion (5.4%)
5. Pharmaceuticals: $12.7 billion (4%)
6. Plastics: $12.4 billion (3.9%)
7. Fruits, nuts: $9.3 billion (2.9%)
8. Iron and steel: $9 billion (2.8%)
9. Iron or steel products: $8.2 billion (2.6%)
10. Clothing (not knit or crochet): $7.4 billion (2.3%)

• Spanish machinery posted the third-fastest gain in value at 33.6%.
• The slowest-growing category among the top 10 Spanish exports was iron and steel products which was down by 2%.

 

http://www.worldstopexports.com/spains-top-10-exports/3044

 

 

Politics

In the wake of the economic crisis and high-profile corruption scandals which have tarnished the reputation of the traditional political parties in Spain, the country has now entered a new political era.

 

Anti-austerity parties, linked to the Podemos movement on the far left, which is barely one year old, have the prestige of holding power in Barcelona, and could form a coalition to rule in the Spanish capital. Across the country the ruling Popular Party (PP) of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has been punished. The PP will hold onto the fact that they still have the highest share of the vote of any single party.  

 

 

 

Significant support nationwide has shifted from the PP to parties on the left, even though the PP has taken Spain's economy from the height of the financial crisis in 2012 through to a period of impressive growth.

Spain's economy is expected to grow faster this year than any other economy in the Eurozone.

The new mayor of Barcelona


In Spain across the political spectrum with the traditional parties, and in particular the PP, who many now, rightly or wrongly, associate with corruption and the political cronyism of the past.
 



Religious Overview

Spain has undergone deep transformations in the religious field since the democratic transition initiated after the death of Franco in 1978. This article provides a general overview of the main changes that occurred both in the religious landscape and in public policy governing religious diversity.

 

The current religious situation is characterized by a generalized decrease in the proportion of those who self-identify as religious and who participate in traditional religious practice (weekly mass attendance), even though roughly 70% of Spaniards self-identify  as “Catholic”.

 

Religious education remains a central yet contentious policy challenge in Spain: a shift in the political color of the national government has always been followed by changes in the regulation of religious education. To date, public schools are obliged to offer confessional religious education to those students from the four main religions: Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism and Islam.

 

People

PEOPLE: Spain has four major ethnic groups that are divided by language, Castilian, Basque, Catalan and Galician which combined account for almost the entire population. Other ethnic minorities include Gitanos, Magyars, Gypsies and Jews.

 Percentages of Ethnic groups:

Castilian Spanish 74,4%; Catalan 16,9%; Galician 6,4%; Basque 1,6%; other 0,7%

Ethnic Conflicts: 

PRESENT-DAY PLURALIST SPAIN
There is no clear continuity between medieval and contemporary Spain, yet nationlists often resort to that history to gain political legitimacy. There are today five major regions or cultural areas: Galicia, Basque Provinces-Navarre, Catalonia, Castile and Andalusia; four languages: Galician, Basque, Catalán, Castilian (Spanish); and several dialects.

"The Basque Problem" is not only ethnic problem facing pluralist Spain. The development of 17 autonomous regions has lessensed the significance of the more threatening nationalisms of Catalonia and the Basque Provinces, but it has also brought on new forms of ethnic difference and new rivalries among the autonomous regions.





Helpful Links:
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/spain/ethnic-violence-and-making-pluralist-spain
http://www.populstat.info/Europe/spaing.htm
http://www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/spain.htm

Things to Know When Traveling to Spain...

• One current environmental issue is the pollution of the Mediterranean Sea from raw sewage and effluents from the offshore production of oil and gas; water quality and quantity nationwide; air pollution; deforestation; desertification.
• Some natural hazards are periodic droughts and occasional flooding.
• The climate is temperate; clear, hot summers in interior, more moderate and cloudy along coast; cloudy, cold winters in interior, partly cloudy and cool along coast.

This is a space shuttle photo that was taken near sunset. Two packets of tidally generated  internal waves are highlighted by the sun glint off the surface of waters in the Strait of Gibraltar. 

The small Spanish enclave of Ceuta occupies a narrow isthmus of the land on the African side of the Strait of Gibraltar, the rest of the surrounding territory is Morocco.

The Pyrenees mountains formed between 100 and 150 years ago when the landmass that Spain occupies pushed into the one that France occupies. The mountains have served as a natural barrier between the Iberian peninsula and the rest of Europe.

Population Statistics

48,146,134 people living there as of July 2015.

Population growth rate - 0.89% (2015 est.)

Dependency ratios -

total dependency ratio: 50.8%

youth dependency ratio: 22.4%

elderly dependency ratio: 28.3%

potential support ratio: 3.5% (2015 est.)

 

 

Thematic maps show specifically one theme in an area, and focus on showing where these themes are located. They can portray physical, social, political, cultural, economic, sociological, agricultural, or any other aspects of a city, state, region, nation, or continent. The country I have chosen for my blog this week is Spain. I chose this country because I have a lot of family that lives there, and I have also traveled there before. The three themes that I chose for the thematic maps of Spain were: temperatures, what minerals are found where, and what areas of Spain are rural and which areas are more urban. Something that I found interesting and it was really cool to see on a map was the amount of rural area that there really is in Spain. I recall while being there seeing miles and miles of rural area and that was proven to be true for many other parts of Spain as well that I had not seen before.

This is a map showing what the temperatures are like in different areas in Spain.

Showing what minerals are found where in Spain.