Economy

Imports
$473 billion (2022). Crude Petroleum ($42.6B), Petroleum Gas ($24.6B), Cars ($18.2B), Packaged Medicaments ($13.2B), and Motor vehicles; parts and accessories (8701 to 8705) ($12.8B), importing mostly from Germany ($49.7B), China ($47B), France ($46.4B), Italy ($32.8B), and United States ($29.6B).

In 2022, Spain was the world’s biggest importer of Tar ($201M), Electric Locomotives ($190M), Fat and Oil Residues ($180M), Other Locomotives ($152M), and Olive Oil ($114M).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 98.3% have an account with a financial institution
• 56.6% have a credit card
• 65% make online purchases

Ease of doing business
It is very easy to conduct business (rated 77.9 out of 100) ranked 19th out of 34 OECD high income countries and ranked 30th out of 190 countries worldwide (2023, World Bank).

Exports
$394 billion (2022). Cars ($33.6B), Refined Petroleum ($17.2B), Packaged Medicaments ($12.7B), Motor vehicles; parts and accessories (8701 to 8705) ($10.6B), and Vaccines, blood, antisera, toxins and cultures ($7.57B), exporting mostly to France ($65.2B), Germany ($39.2B), Portugal ($34.9B), Italy ($32.1B), and United Kingdom ($22.6B).

In 2022, Spain was the world’s biggest exporter of Pig Meat ($5.92B), Pure Olive Oil ($4.43B), Citrus ($3.65B), Prepared Pigments ($1.21B), and Cucumbers ($969M)

Main local online stores
Amazon, El Corte Inglés, eBay, Alibaba, Media Markt and Google Shopping.

Economic freedom
‘Moderately free’ (63.3 out of 100) ranked 30th out of 44 European countries ranked 55th out of 184 countries worldwide (2024, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 18th out of 39 European countries, 29th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Media

Media language Spanish, Catalan

Information channels
Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE competes with large and established commercial operators. TV is the main news medium and satellite and cable are popular digital platforms. Home-produced dramas, reality shows and long-running soap operas are staple fare on primetime TV. Regional TV networks are operated by their respective governments and there are many local stations. Movistar+, owned by telecom firm Telefonica, is the biggest pay TV provider. There is a free press that investigates high-level corruption, says US-based Freedom House. But the organisation raises concerns about the concentration of media ownership and what it says is political interference in public media. Facebook is the leading social media platform.

The press

El Mundo – Madrid-based daily
El Pais – Madrid-based daily
ABC – Madrid-based daily
La Razón – Madrid-based daily
La Vanguardia – Barcelona-based daily
El Periódico de Catalunya – Barcelona-based daily

Television

TVE – public, services include national networks La Primera and La 2, satellite-delivered TVE Internacional, rolling news channel 24 Horas
Telecinco – national, commercial
Antena 3 – national, commercial
Cuatro – national, commercial

Radio

RNE – public, services include speech network Radio 1, cultural network Radio Clasica, youth-oriented Radio 3, news station Radio 5 Todo Noticias
Cadena SER – commercial, operates more than 50 national, regional stations
Onda Cero – commercial
Cadena COPE – church-controlled

News agency

EFE – government-owned
Europa Press – private
Colpisa – private

Internet Data

Internet users
96% penetration, 45.58 million

Share of web traffic by device
64.84% mobile phones, 33.32% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.81% tablet devices, others 0.03%

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
41.54  Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
201.08 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 127.2%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 96.9%

Most popular web search engines
Google (95.79%), Bing (2.76%), Yahoo! (0.89%), Duckduckgo (0.31%), Ecosia (0.13%), Yandex Ru (0.08%).

Most used social media
Facebook (90.07%), Instagram (4.79%), Twitter (3.3%), Pinterest (0.98%), YouTube (0.6%), LinkedIn (0.1%).

Social statistics

Life expectancy
83 years (2022)

Religion
Catholicism is the most common religion in Spain. People are not discriminated against by religion either in the workplace or in social life. Spaniards don’t usually ask about religious beliefs because they are assumed to be the same. But if there is a difference it is not an issue that would be a basis for discrimination.

Most Catholics in Spain call themselves “believers” but not “practitioners”. This means that they have been baptised and married according to religious ritual but that they don’t follow the other religious practices.

Class
Social class in Spain is not relevant in terms of social relations or labour opportunities. Classes are divided according to money and not race, religion or any other factor. Culture and education are more important in order to succeed. A person from a lower class family who is well educated has the same opportunities for success as a person from a higher social class. Education, at all levels, is free in Spain.

There is only one class that is really different from the rest of Spanish people: nobility, which is very small. It is not even considered a true class since the possession of a noble title does not assure possessions, money, special treatment or any other favours. Spain is a democratic country where everyone has the same privileges and opportunities. The only advantage is the glamour related to such families.

Current health expenditure
10.74% of GDP

Current education expenditure
94.7% of total expenditure in public institutions

CO2 emissions
5.33 metric tons per capita

Corruption perceptions Index
Spain scored 60 out of 100, ranked 35 out of 180 countries worldwide.

World Happiness Index
Spain ranked 29 out of 146 countries, with a score of 6.476.

Glass Ceiling Index
63.6 out 100, ranked 15th out of 29 countries.

The glass-ceiling index measures the environment for working women combining data on higher education, labor-force participation, pay, child-care costs, maternity and paternity rights, business-school applications, and representation in senior jobs.

Gender
Women and men are considered equals by law and in a general sense. But discriminatory behaviour against women does continue in certain levels of society. Companies find legal ways to pay less to women that are doing the same task as men. Women are preferred in certain tasks because they are considered less confrontational than men.

Employers prefer not to hire women that are married and in child-bearing age to avoid paying for maternity leave. It is a common practice to ask openly about marital status and future family plans in a job interview. For men it is seen as a good sign of maturity and stability; for women it is seen as a probability of a high level of absenteeism.

In general, gender is not a restricting feature of any kind, though in private life, women assume the major part of the work at home and the education of the children. This fact is changing among the younger generations and these changes are well regarded by the older generations. It is important to mention that there is a big difference between the rural areas and the cities.

Ethnicity
Spain has traditionally been a very racially homogeneous country, all white, but mostly “latin-looking” in the southern regions and Caucasian-looking in the northern regions. But this fact is presently changing, given globalization and immigration. Spain has been traditionally a country of emigrants and not immigrants.

There are two distinct ethnicities that suffer from discriminatory behaviour in Spain: the gypsies and the Moors.

Gypsies in general have always been rejected for their completely different way of life. They usually only follow their own regulations and “patriarcas” (head of each family) and refuse to live according to any central national government laws or to any of the western standards like housing, jobs or education. Because of the huge differences with the “payo” (majority) culture, people are usually scared and consider them thieves, pocket lifters and tend to discriminate them in job opportunities, housing or education. Their way of life inside a western culture does not help to adjust and get money or a comfortable life, which has contributed to young gypsies suffering more the effects of drug addiction and the criminal world related to it. This hasn’t helped in their integration in society despite huge efforts of all Spain’s democratic governments to approach this community. Traditionally, Moorish culture has been perceived negatively in Spain; this includes Moroccans, Algerians, Lebanese and Turkish. Nobody really knows the reason for the aversion against northern Mediterranean culture since they have contributed a great deal to Spanish culture. The truth is that Spanish people discriminate against them. They consider them to be untrustworthy and such discrimination is not related to skin colour, race or religious practises.