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Geography
The kingdom of Spain occupies an area of 505,992 square km in the southwest of Europe and cover most of Iberian peninsula which is shared with Portugal. also include the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic ocean, and Ceuta y Melilla regions en the north of Africa.
Climate
Spain have a mainly typical Mediterranean climate. The weather in the Northern coast, Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay is mild and generally rainy through the year neither very low in the winter, not very high in the summer. In the Mediterranean coastline including Balearic Islands the weather is mild in the winter and the summer is hot. The most extreme differences occurs in center of the country, where the climate is rather dry with cold winters and hot summers. Canary Islands have a climate with constantly temperatures around 20 ºC.
Population
The estimated population of Spain is 40,5 million peoples with a population density of more than 80 inhabitants per square kilometer and more that 35% of the population lives in the main cities of the provinces: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Saragossa, Malaga, Bilbao, Las Palmas of Grand Canary...
Language
The official language is Spanish (Castilian) and other regional languages such as Catalan, Basque, Galician and Valencian in specific Autonomous Communities.
Religion
The majority of the population is Roman Catholic.
Politic administration
Spain is a parliamentary monarchy, The King is the Head of State. The responsibility of enacting lows is entrusted to the Lower House of Parliament and the Senate. The members are elected by universal suffrage every four years. The government is headed by the President of Government who is elected by the Generals Courts and is in charge to elect the Council of Ministers. For administrative purpose, Spain is organized into 17 autonomous Communities each containing one or more provinces. Each Autonomous Community exercises the powers assigned to by the constitution as specified in ’’Statute of Autonomy’’.
The Autonomous Communities are financially autonomous and can share in the revenue collected under central taxes or can levy their own taxes and also can receive allocation from the General State budget. As result of the structure Spain has become one of most decentralized countries in Europe.
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