NAME: España - The origin of this name comes from the Latin word Hispania, old name of this country.

POPULATION: 45 million

AREA: 505,000 Km (almost 200,000 square feet) DENSITY: About 89 people/Km2 or 225 people/Square Mile

OFICIAL LANGUAGE: Spanish, also called Castellano, because of its origins in Castille. There are some co-official languages in some regions of Spain, like Catalan-Valencian, Basque, Galician and Aranese.

CURRENCY: EURO ( € ) Spain used to have Pesetas since 1868 until the new official currency of the European Union replaced the Pesetas in 2001.

LOCATION: Spain is situated in the South part of Europe, South West of France and North of Morocco. The North East part of Spain and the South West of France are slightly separated by the Pyrenees, a very popular skiing landmark. This used to be a very important place were several battles between the Old France and the Old Spain took place.

Portugal is part of the Iberian Peninsula as well, located on the West Side. The Iberian Peninsula is surrounded by water, the Atlantic Ocean is in the West side of it, although it wraps around both the North and South of Spain. However, Spaniards call the sea located up North “The Cantabrian Sea". Gibraltar, officially part of the United Kingdom, is in the South West tip of Spain. Andorra is also a small country located within the Spanish Territory, right next to the Pyrenees.

The East Coast of Spain is also called the Mediterranean Coast as it’s delimited by the Mediterranean Sea. The popular Balear Islands, which include the tourist landmarks of Mallorca and Ibiza, are located in the Mediterranean Sea, right in between the Spanish East Coast and the Italian West Coast and the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia.

The Canary Islands are positioned far South, next to the South West Coast of Morocco, and also South East of the Islands of Madeira. Tenerife and Fuerteventura are probably the most popular tourist locations within the Canary Islands. Spain also has a few more very little islands in the West Coast of Morocco.

CAPITAL: Madrid. It is the capital of Spain. It’s a very cosmopolitan city where you can enjoy the most pure flavors of the Spanish culture. It’s situated right in the center of Spain and it has a little more than 3 million inhabitants.

BIGGEST CITIES: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville, in this order.

POPULAR TOURIST CITIES: Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, Malaga, Ibiza, Granada, Cordoba, Alicante, Benidorm, Cadiz…

GOVERNMENT: Parliamentary Monarchy, with a king – Juan Carlos I and a President of the Government, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

REGIONAL ADMINISTRATIONS: Spain is divided in 17 regions since 1983. These regions are what one could call “States”, but their internal power is not as strong and independent as what we call “State” in America. These are the names:

ANDALUSIA ARAGON ASTURIAS BALEARIC ISLANDS BASQUE COUNTRY CANARY ISLANDS CANTABRIA

CASTILE-LA MANCHA CASTILE-LEON CATALONIA CEUTA EXTREMADURA GALICIA LA RIOJA

MADRID MELILLA MURCIA NAVARRE VALENCIAN COMMUNITY

All these regions have their own governments and rules, as well as each province (smaller regions within each one) have their own governments. Each city also has a City Council called Ayuntamiento. However, they all depend on the central power of the Spanish Government, and they can only create rules that don’t affect the rules dictated by the Spanish Government and the Constitution of Spain, declared in 1978, 3 years after Franco’s death.

CALLING CODE: +34 TIME ZONE: Fall - Winter: UTC +1 / Spring – Summer: UTC +2 (In the Canary Islands is always 1 hour earlier)