Country name: conventional long form: Kingdom of Spain /local: Reino de España
conventional short form: Spain / local: España

Capital: Madrid

Spain is located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco.
Spain is a democracy organized in the form of a parliamentary government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a developed country with the eighth largest economy in the world based on nominal GDP.
It is a member of the European Union and NATO. Spain has one of the most dynamic economies in Europe.

Area: 504,030 km²
Spain is the second largest country in Western Europe after France.

People of Spain
Population: 40,491,052 (July 2008 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 14.4% (male 3,011,815/female 2,832,788)
15-64 years: 67.6% (male 13,741,493/female 13,641,914)
65 years and over: 17.9% (male 3,031,597/female 4,231,444) (2008 est.)
Median age:
total: 40.7 years
male: 39.3 years
female: 42.1 years (2008 est.)
Nationality:
noun: Spaniard(s)
adjective: Spanish
Languages: Castilian Spanish (official) 74%, Catalan 17%, Galician 7%, Basque 2%, are official regionally

Government
Government type: parliamentary monarchy
Administrative divisions:
17 autonomous communities (sp. singular: Comunidad Autónoma):
Andalucía, Aragón, Asturias, Baleares (Balearic Islands), Canarias (Canary Islands), Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Cataluña (Catalonia), Comunidad Valenciana (Valencian Community), Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, Navarra, País Vasco (Basque Country) and 2 autonomous cities: Ceuta y Melilla plus three small islands of Islas Chafarinas, Peñon de Alhucemas, and Peñon de Velez de la Gomera, administered directly by the Spanish central government.
National holiday: National Day, 12 October (1492); year when Columbus first set foot in the Americas.
Constitution: approved by legislature 31 October 1978; passed by referendum 6 December 1978, effective 29 December 1978.
Legal system: civil law system, with regional applications; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations.
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
Executive branch:
Chief of state: King JUAN CARLOS I (since 22 November 1975); Heir Apparent Prince FELIPE, son of the monarch.
Head of government: President of the Government (Prime Minister equivalent) Jose Luis Rodriguez ZAPATERO (since 17 April 2004); First Vice President (and Minister of the Presidency) Maria Teresa FERNANDEZ DE LA VEGA (since 18 April 2004) and Second Vice President (and Minister of Economy and Finance) Pedro SOLBES Mira (since 18 April 2004)
cabinet: Council of Ministers designated by the president.
There is also a Council of State that is the supreme consultative organ of the government, but its recommendations are non-binding.
elections: the monarchy is hereditary; following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually proposed president by the monarch and elected by the National Assembly; election last held on 9 and 11 April 2008 (next to be held in March 2012); vice presidents appointed by the monarch on the proposal of the president.
Legislative branch:
bicameral: General Courts or National Assembly or Las Cortes Generales consists of the Senate or Senado (264 seats as of 2008; 208 members directly elected by popular vote and the other 56 - as of 2008 - appointed by the regional legislatures; to serve four-year terms) and the Congress of Deputies or Congreso de los Diputados (350 seats; each of the 50 electoral provinces fills a minimum of two seats and the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla fill one seat each with members serving a four-year term; the other 248 members are determined by proportional representation based on popular vote on block lists who serve four-year terms).
elections: Senate - last held on 9 March 2008 (next to be held in March 2012); Congress of Deputies - last held on 9 March 2008 (next to be held in March 2012)
Judicial branch: Supreme Court or Tribunal Supremo